Whoever you are, I pray these godly, loving words over you and yours today! I also pray this over modern day Israel just like God told His priests to do long ago.

God told the priests in the temple from this Old Testament passage to bless His people with this special blessing.

Numbers 6:

²² Then the Lord said to Moses, ²³ “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing:

²⁷ Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.”

It’s important to know the Bible. It’s important to think and dwell on God. It’s important to ask Him questions. That’s how we get closer to Him. Then the power of God can fill our lives. A Sadducee, a religious leader in Jesus day, kept asking Jesus questions. Until finally He said, “You’re not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Mark 12:

¹⁸ Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question:¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.^{[a] 20} Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. ²¹ So the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her. ²² This continued with all seven of them, and still there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. ²³ So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”

²⁴ Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. ²⁵ For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

²⁶ “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses,^[b] ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^{[c] 27} So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”

²⁸ One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. ³⁰ And you must love the Lordyour God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’^{[d] 31} The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[e] No other commandment is greater than these.”

³² The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. ³³ And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”

³⁴ Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I’m not going to compare myself to anyone else anymore. I’m going to train my brain to push out comparison thoughts I have towards whether I consider them greater than or less than me. It doesn’t matter in the eyes of God. God made each of us very unique with a fulfilling special plan for our life.  I have to admit famous, rich, confident, highly intelligent and successful people can intimidate me. I choose to overcome that anxiety, with the the help of God, when I am in their presence.

Look at it this way, we all have butts. Literal, nasty crap comes out of our butts pretty much everyday!!!!! In fact, this is how God made us so that we would have healthy digestive systems! If someone intimidates me, I’m just gonna remember they sit on the toilet like me and commit the unspeakable act of taking a crap!

Psalm 139:

Almighty God deserves our highest honor.

Psalm 47:

God has ascended with a mighty shout.
    The Lord has ascended with trumpets blaring.
⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises;
    sing praises to our King, sing praises!
⁷ For God is the King over all the earth.
    Praise him with a psalm.^[a]
8 God reigns above the nations,
    sitting on his holy throne.
⁹ The rulers of the world have gathered together
    with the people of the God of Abraham.
For all the kings of the earth belong to God.
    He is highly honored everywhere.

I woke up this cold winter morning to fresh fallen snow outside my window. It’s Sunday. There will probably be fewer in church today.

In Mark 10 and 11, Jesus was preparing for His death on the cross. He told His disciples  straight out everything that was about to unfold. Then He made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The people honored Him as He rode in on a donkey. Then He went to the temple. The temple had become a marketplace where people sold animals that were used for sacrifices. Jesus in controlled anger sent the message the House of God would not be a place to buy and sell but a house of prayer for all nations. The zeal for God’s house, as prophesied before Jesus time, consumed Him.

Today I’m going to church. My church doesn’t close it’s doors on Sunday even if there’s an Oklahoma blizzard outside.

So, I pray,

Heavenly Father,

I thank you for the snow. Bring souls to church today that need Jesus. We come together on this cold morning to worship you, as true worshippers do, in Spirit and in truth. It’s a little harder to get to church today but Lord bless all who attend and let the angels in Heaven rejoice as sinners repent today. Let it be said of us, as the Bible says of Jesus…the zeal for God’s House has consumed us.

~With Jesus I pray! Amen!

Mark 11:

¹⁵ When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.^{[a] 17} He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”^[b]

There are three verses that say with God nothing shall be impossible. One occurred when the angel told Mary, a poor teenager, she was pregnant with Jesus.  Another occurred when Jesus was talking to a young man who wanted to follow Him but he didn’t want to give up his riches. The other verse occurred when Jesus healed a man’s son of demon possession.

I believe that with God nothing is impossible. He spoke and created everything from nothing. God can use me to make the impossible a reality so that His name will be honored.

Mark 9:

¹⁷ One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk.¹⁸ And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.^[d] So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”

¹⁹ Jesus said to them,^[e] “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.

²¹ “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.

He replied, “Since he was a little boy.²² The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

²³ “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?”Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

²⁴ The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil^[f] spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”

²⁶ Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

Bring children to Jesus by loving them and taking them to church and telling them about Him. And then remember to open your heart and be, even vulnerable like children, especially to God.

Mark 10:

¹³ One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

¹⁴ When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. ¹⁵ I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

I love children. They bring innocence to our world. They’re gifts from God. Little ones are humble and honest.

I teach two year olds. It’s my ministry to families. Or maybe they teach me.

Mark 9:

³⁵ He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

³⁶ Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf^[a] welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”

³⁸ John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.”

³⁹ “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ Anyone who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.

⁴² “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.

Every year when I read through the four Gospels and study the life of Jesus I love to read again how He healed people.

This year, the situations in which Jesus dealt with demon possessed people really stands out to me. In some of the situations loved ones would come to Jesus and say straight out that the person that needed to be healed was demon possessed. I always take note of how fearful and knowledgeable the demons were of Jesus. I even like to turn it around and use the words of the demons against them when I honor and thank God in prayer. For example, the demons called Jesus the Son of the Most high God. So, I thank Jesus that He is truly the Son of the most high God, my Heavenly Father. Here’s another example, once demons in a possessed person mentioned that they would be tortured by Jesus, so, I thank God that at His appointed time the devil and his demons will be tortured and cast into the lake of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But when I speak of my enemies ultimate destruction, I say it in Jesus name and realize, as Christians, our lives must be used to prevent human souls from being eternally destroyed. I must tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to others.

Something else that comes to mind is, if as Christians, we want a great revival to come in these end times, part of it will deal with modern day demon possession. If you said someone was demon possessed today that would be a very big insult. The cure for demon possession today is to be medicated and see a psychological professional. So, this question lingers in my mind, how do Christians kindly,  compassionately and respectfully love a demon possessed person to Jesus?

Mark 9:

¹⁷ One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk.¹⁸ And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.^[a] So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”

¹⁹ Jesus said to them,^[b] “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.

²¹ “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.

He replied, “Since he was a little boy.²² The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

²³ “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?”Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

²⁴ The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil^[c] spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”

²⁶ Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

²⁸ Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.^[d]”

Jesus healed a blind man.

Mark 8:

²² When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. ²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

²⁴ The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”

²⁵ Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”