Sharing My "Work"

It's only fair that since I asked all of you to try to do this that I should share my work. If you go to the download section, you can download and read my journal from "The Mark Challenge."

On Your Mark!

As we did with the Book of Psalms over the Fall, we are attempting to learn about the Gospel of Mark during this Easter Season. On Sunday, April 3rd, Pastor Wilson challenged us all to read one chapter of Mark per day from April 8 through Easter Sunday and to answer four relatively simple questions in order to focus on what we've read. Everyone has very busy lives in today's world and it's tough to carve out even enough time to read a chapter per day, much less answer questions, but those who take this challenge will be blessed and will have their own Mark journal to show for it. Below, Pastor Wilson shares the schedule for the challenge and the questions, plus provides a simple example of a journal entry from Chapter 1. It doesn't have to be tremendously detailed to be valuable. As with the Psalms Journal, Pastor Wilson will update his experiences in the gospel as entries in this blog.

The Mark Challenge – 2011

Goal: To read the full gospel of Mark together during the Easter season and gain insight into our Lord and ourselves as we do so.

Methodology: For each chapter, we will respond in four ways. 1) We will list what Jesus did and said in the chapter. 2) We will list how different listeners/observers responded to Jesus’ actions/words. 3) We will share about our own response to Jesus’ actions/words. 4) We will suggest what this response should mean in our daily lives. That’s four "exercises" for each chapter.

Schedule:
April   8, 2011 – Mark   1
April   9, 2011 – Mark   2
April 10, 2011 – Mark   3
April 11, 2011 – Mark   4
April 12, 2011 – Mark   5
April 13, 2011 – Mark   6
April 14, 2011 – Mark   7
April 15, 2011 – Mark   8
April 16, 2011 – Mark   9
April 17, 2011 – Mark 10
April 18, 2011 – Mark 11
April 19, 2011 – Mark 12
April 20, 2011 – Mark 13
April 21, 2011 – Mark 14
April 22, 2011 – Mark 15
April 23, 2011 – Mark 16

Here’s a sample entry for April 8^th: 

April 8, 2011 – Mark 1

1. Jesus submits to the baptism of John and, after the Spirit of God reveals who He is, is driven into the wilderness for testing. He returns to preach in Galilee and calls the Fab Four (Andrew, Peter, James and John). He casts out a demon, heals Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever, and heals many, including a leper told to show himself to the priests.

2. The Fab Four follow Him, the crowd recognizes that He teaches and acts with authority, the ill come to Him for healing, and the leper who was healed partially disobeyed Him by “going public.”

3. I left my intended vocation to follow God’s call into ministry, so I understand the Fab Four leaving their nets. Yet, as I look at my life, I wonder how much I’ve really given up. I’m probably more like the leper who blabbed about Jesus after being told to keep quiet. I seem to have thought I knew more than God about what I needed in too much of my life.

4. I want to obey God instead of going my own way so much of the time.