Embrace the Possibilities
- Jan 12, 2024
- 2 min read
Daily Reading: Mark 12
Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? (Mark 12.24)
Devotional Thought: The Sadducees, who did not even believe in the resurrection, tried to trap Jesus with a question about the resurrection. Jesus told them, "You don't know what you're talking about because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God." Ouch!
This was a slap in the face to the Sadducees - the ruling elites. Of course, they knew the Scriptures! They probably had most of it memorized, definitely Genesis - Deuteronomy. Not know the power of God? Why these were powerful men, presiding over the temple and allied with the Romans!
Yet Jesus said, “Not so fast. Your religious pedigree, your knowledge of the scripture, and your work in ‘The Church’ do not qualify you as knowing the Scriptures and power of God.” Wow! Just because I read the Bible and have memorized large portions of it does not mean I really know it. I must live by its tenets to really know it personally. And just because I preach, or teach, or serve on the board does not mean that I have spiritual power. I will never know true power until I become like Jesus who had the faith to lay down his life.
How many errors could be corrected, how many mistakes could be avoided, if we knew the Scriptures and the power of God! If we really knew the Bible and lived what it said, and if we were convinced that God was working everything out according to his might, then we wouldn’t be so quick to press our own ways, and our own errors, upon others.
May the Scriptures and the power of God be at work in your life!
Prayer: Lord of heaven and earth, I praise you for you are all-powerful. Yet, you have also made a way for me to access your power - by the Word of God. Help me to be a person of the Word, so that I can live with power. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: 7.14-17
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.