Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Thursday, December 14, 2023

QT 12/14/2023 Mark 9:30-32, The importance of asking questions

Mark 9:30–32 (ESV) —

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

 

NOTE: There is a lot happening here that is not recorded. Obviously the teaching included more than a couple of sentences of his being delivered into the hands of men and killed and rise. But it is clear that they did not understand but were too fearful to ask. The fear may be related to Jesus' response to Peter previously, or more likely it is related to the next passage, "who is the greatest among them." I say that because one of the reasons people don't ask questions is that they don't want to appear as the dumb one, even though there are usually many others with the same question. No one wanted to ask Jesus because obviously, to be the greatest, you had all the answers. And so we (like the disciples) fail to ask questions for fear others will think less of us. Our own pride prevents us from knowing.

 

PONDER:

  1. Am I willing to appear "dumb" before others?

 

PRAYER: Father, I pray that my pride would not rise up in these days of retirement. I have no one to compete against. I am free to be humble.

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