Friday, July 18, 2014

In our last visit we identified a title, key verse and significant truth as we began doing a chapter study of Mark 10. Let’s continue by looking for cross references to enhance our understanding. Jesus quoted from Genesis 1 and 2, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Romans 6 and 12 would help us understand full surrender. Think of some difficulties or questions emerging from this chapter. When we’ve done these things we’ll be quite familiar with the contents of the chapter and be able to develop an outline. The title I chose was: “The Key to a God Blessed Life.” Points in the outline were: God wants to bless you in your family, in your personal life, and in your community of believers. Under point one, in your family, I listed sub points: your marriage and your children. Amplifying Jesus’ teaching on marriage it’s clear God has a plan. Man is to leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, for life, in a “one flesh” relationship. Never tamper with this ideal. Husband and wife can nurture this relationship by not thinking about what they’ll receive, but rather, what they can give to this relationship. If both have this focus on commitment God will bless their union. If they become selfish they will forfeit His blessing. The same is true of the parent-child relationship. When both are concerned about giving, rather than receiving, they will experience the joy the parents had when they brought their children to Jesus. Jesus presented the children as examples of how we should come to God to receive His kingdom. He then took them “in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” What a beautiful picture of a God blessed family.