Day five of the Questions for Mark study and I will again use one devotional question to inspire this devotional.

“What is the significance of what Jesus appoints the twelve to do (vv. 14-15)?”

Mark 3:14-15 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

The last named in that list of twelve is Judas Iscariot. Jesus, knowing this to be the one who will betray Him, still bestow Judas with these divine powers. I have had many conversations with fellow Christians that have such a hatred for this traitor that they refuse to learn anything from his example.

“Why should I forgive this traitor after what he did to Jesus?”

Unforgiveness blocks hearing. It causes us to see only the negative about a person and yields no fruit of righteousness. It leads to assumptions about the character of a man (or woman) which are not based on truth but rather emotions. The enemy would love for us to lean on innuendo rather than truth. Feelings of unforgiveness is the cutting edge of false doctrine.

In a court of law this would be called “poisoning the jury pool.” If Mark where writing a mystery novel here, it would be giving the plot away and killing the suspense. For us, who seek the truth, it is a clear sign of unforgiveness. The real question for you and I is over the issue of negative knowledge and how those emotions might be blocking us from discovering relevant truths that Christ is showing.

Do you ever feel like God cannot use you because you aren’t good enough? Are negative feeling about your own nature keeping you from even trying?

Hebrews 11:33-34 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Day four of the Questions for Mark study and I will again use one devotional question to inspire this devotional.

“What does Jesus do here that’s unexpected or controversial?”

Mark 2:18 And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?

This is just the first example that points out the issues at hand in today’s reading from Mark 2:13 to Mark 3:6. Every example shown is about challenging Jesus for His teaching because it did not line up with all the rules and regulations that the religious leaders of the day had set up for the Jews to follow. Here is a quote from Jack Wellman on whatchristianswanttoknow.com.

“God never intended the Sabbath to become a burden but that’s what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had done. They made that day seem to everyone to be like a camel that’s been weighed down by every possible weight imaginable.  In fact, they had added hundreds of other manmade traditions, which they considered to be equal to or in some cases, greater than the law, that were not in the original Sabbath command.”

We did not live in that era and we have no experience with being put to the test over issues that God never called out. We do live in an era today where a prophetic warning seems to be playing out in main stream churches.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

They are falling away from sound doctrine, the truth, Christ.