Hey friends! I'm Natalia, passionate about encouraging you in your faith and equipping you to study God's Word.
Holding On or Letting Go?
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Hello Reader, It's been a minute, I know I missed a couple weeks of these emails. Life around here has been a little wild lately, but we have been settling in to new rhythms and routines. I'm deep in the book of Mark for Bible club and our weekly Bible study group and I've been wrestling with two stories that I can't stop thinking about. One of the things we had to do in seminary all the time was outline a book of the Bible and find the patterns and parallelisms. Now my brain looks to see the order in which the writers of each gospel frame their stories. Knowing each detail is intentional and instructive. In the book of Mark, who is do sparse in stories compared to Matthew or Luke, I am heightened to each detail Mark includes because I know he's not one to just add words for the sake of filling a scroll. In Mark 10:17-22 Jesus is preparing to go on a journey and He is confronted by a rich young man who wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus challenges the man's thinking and begins to confront the young man, finally telling the man that all his good works are not enough until he surrenders everything he has and follows Jesus. The rich young ruler who was so excited to have eternal life in verse 17 leaves Jesus in verse 22 sorrowful because he doesn't want to release the things of this world and follow Jesus. The cost was too high, the hold of this world on his heart too much. This rich young ruler could see Jesus and yet missed Him. At the end of this same chapter, Jesus is leaving Jericho when we are introduced to Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who hears about Jesus passing through and begins screaming from the crowds to get Jesus's attention. Jesus doesn't respond at first, but Bartimaeus doesn't worry, he just gets louder and continues to persist until Jesus finally calls for him to come forward. This is the part where the details matter. Hearing that Jesus is granting him an audience, Mark 10:50 states, "Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus." In the ancient world your cloak was essential to survival, especially for a beggar. Unable to work, Bartimaeus depended on the alms of others. He would lay his cloak on the ground and sit at the busy areas of the city for people to drop alms for the poor. His cloak was his protection from the heat and kept him warm in the cool months. His cloak was his most valuable and possibly only possession, but at the opportunity to be with Jesus Bartimaeus left his cloak and ran to Jesus. One man refused to leave it all. One man gladly left it all. The seeing man was blind to all Jesus offered by surrendering his life. The blind man saw all Jesus offered by surrendering his life. So I'm left with the question, which man am I? Am I like the rich young ruler who can see Jesus but refuses to release my grip of this world, or am I like Bartimaeus, willing to let go of everything for the opportunity to be with Jesus? What do we need to throw off so we can run toward Jesus? Only one of those characters followed Jesus. Let's make sure we don't cling to this world too tightly and miss Jesus because of it! Father, help me to see Jesus as He has revealed Himself, and help me to release the things of this world because what You offer in granting eternal life is far greater than any temporary satisfaction this world can offer. In the name of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit I pray, amen. In His Grace, It's a Book Birthday π₯³:My sweet sister in Christ and friend from seminary, Seana Scott has a book birthday this week and is releasing her book Believe! This is an excellent resource to study the book of John and learn about belief. She partnered with Every Woman a Theologian Ministry for the publication of this book and you aren't going to want to miss out on this resource. Plus, with your purchase you can download free extra resources on her site.
Want to join book club in September?It's not too late to join us for book club this month! We are reading about being Beloved and what that means for our spiritual life. Book club meeting will be September 28th @ 8:30 pm EST. if you want to join us!
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βHi! I'm Natalia!
Hey friends! I'm Natalia, passionate about encouraging you in your faith and equipping you to study God's Word.
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