Take a few deep breaths to center your heart and your mind as you come to meet God.

Meditation on God

Isaiah 40:12 says, “Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?” If God created the heavens and the Earth, how much bigger than they must He be? Take a moment to think about how big God is.

Teaching

"This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’” (Mark 1:1-3)

In this short opening passage, Mark gives us our first impression of who Jesus is. While short and to the point, he uses specific choice words to define Jesus by directly challenging the highest authority of the known world in his day: the Roman emperor. Gospel or “good news” was a term used when the town crier would travel from town to town raving about how the emperor and his army had just defeated an enemy army. It was a declaration of total victory. The title “son of God,” or divi filius as it was in Latin, was attributed to many Roman Emperors in Roman propaganda across the entire empire, including on the face of many of the coins people used every day. The emperor’s association with the divine would make his defeat in the political realm or on the battlefield seem against the will of the gods.

When the first Christians read the opening to Mark’s gospel account of Jesus, they would have gasped at the strength of Mark’s claim that everything powerful and important about the oppressive emperor rightfully belongs to Jesus. When Mark introduces us to Jesus, he is saying, “You think the emperor of Rome is big and powerful? How cute. Wait until you hear about Jesus.”

Examination

Take a moment to think about the thing in your life that seems impossible to overcome or the thing putting the most stress on you right now. Now picture how much bigger, stronger, and better God is next to it.

Memory Verse

“After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mark 1:7b NIV)