Every day pray that everyone you know will either become a Christian or influence others to become a Christian, and please share this online book with others - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05hhZ0oFEIk
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For Sunday evening services, the Lord has lead me to do a Bible study for practical Bible verses in Mark. Please come back to these Bible lessons in order to review them and learn them. Whenever we have learned the meaning of Bible verses and think about them throughout each day, we will be in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). Not only that, but when we are in a situation in our daily lives and are tempted to sin, we can think back to what we have learned from the Bible and say to ourselves, "The Bible says to not do what I am tempted to say, think, do, and/or desire right now, so I am going to refuse to give in to this temptation." This is what Romans 12:2 means, and it says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." This is also the pattern that Jesus used when the devil tempted Him to sin in Matthew 4:1-11.
Chapter 1
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK
Mark 1:40-42
40And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 41And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. 42And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
Jesus wants us to ask Him to heal our illnesses, like the leper did in these verses. Jesus wants to answer our prayers. For advice on how to have your prayers answered, please follow chapter 37 of this book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com
Mark 1:43-45
43And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away; 44And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 45But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.
There were other occassions where Jesus didn't want the people He had healed to announce it to everyone. This was confusing to me, because I thought Jesus wanted as many people as possible to come to Him and admire Him.
However, He didn't want people to flock to Him for the wrong reasons. These people weren't seeking to begin living a totally new lifestyle by becoming His disciples; they were wanting to be entertained by His miracles.
A similar instance was John 2:23–25 which record, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” In this passage, many people were eagerly following Jesus, but He did not “commit” Himself to them because He knew they were just admiring Him and believing in Him due to the miracles He was performing, but He knew they were not willing to obey Matthew 16:24 by denying themselves (give up what they wanted to do), taking up a cross (be willing to tell people they stand with Jesus, even though they knew that they could suffer much verbal abuse and even be put to death for following Him), and following Him (For instructions on how to begin to follow Jesus, see chapter 39 of this book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com) (Luke 9:57–62).
Another classic example of this was when Jesus feed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two small fishes (Only the men were counted, so if the women and children were counted, there would have been a lot more present.), which is recorded in John 6:1-14. Actually, the entire sixth chapter of John records events that happened one right after the other, so check that out. The same multitude that were fed were addressed by Jesus in John 6:26–66. These verses mean that this group of people turned away from following Jesus because they thought He was going to be a conquering Messiah, He refused to give in to self-centered desires (People were following Him to gain prestige, popularity, and possibly political votes from others. They weren't willing to follow Him for the right reasons. They should have been willing to imitate Jesus so others would see their good works and think good thoughts about God (Matthew 5:16) and want to become Christians too.), He emphasized faith and not deeds in order to be saved, and His teaching was hard to understand and was offensive to them. Today, just like these people, many people want to ignore certain verses they don't like (ex. Luke 9:23: "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.") and just focus on verses that mention believing. The more they heard Jesus' message, the more they divided themselves into two different groups: The first group involved the true seekers who wanted to understand more of Jesus' truths (Jesus’ original eleven disciples plus Judas who later betrayed Him), and the second group involved those who rejected Jesus and turned away. As a result, the second group of people gave up their chance to receive salvation at that time.
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you have been following Jesus for the wrong reasons, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
If you have not prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven