Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 31 Read Mark 8:1-26 Jesus was direct and clear when He said, “No sign shall be given” (vs. 12). The Pharisees were demanding signs. Where had they been? Earlier, when Jesus performed a double miracle by healing the deaf and mute man, the crowd responded, “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:37). The 2nd miraculous feeding of the multitudes followed, and His fame spread. Did the Pharisees not see or hear what Jesus was doing? They were truly spiritually sick, being both blind and deaf. They were looking for more, and Jesus was saying, “I am the sign.” The greatest sign of all would be the miracle of the resurrection. And the Pharisees would miss it. Jesus was the sign and the great miracle; however, their blind eyes, closed ears, and hard hearts did not recognize Him. What happened next? “He left them” (vs. 13). It was an act of judgment when Jesus turned and walked away. Miracles won’t soften hard hearts. The miracle needed in every heart is the new birth that results when the living Christ comes to live in our hearts.

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 30 Read Mark 7:14-37 Are you aware of what’s in your heart? The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus echoed this in Mark 7:1-23, teaching that defilement comes from within. The Pharisees professed to have righteous hearts, but Jesus, like a skilled physician reporting to a patient about an unfavorable x-ray, said their hearts were not healthy. He said their hearts were sick, even contaminated. More than that, their hearts were far from God and outright evil! That wasn’t a report they enjoyed receiving! You can be sure that any or all of the things listed in (vs. 21-22) are capable of rising up in our own hearts. But the Pharisees did not see the deadly enemy lurking within. Martin Luther once said, “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the greatest pope, self.” Our self-righteousness will always condemn us. Human goodness will never be good enough. The heart must be under constant surveillance (Proverbs 4:23). We must daily ask Jesus to search and cleanse our hearts. We have His faithful promise that He will make our hearts clean: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Give the Lord praise for cleansing your heart. Ask Him to keep your heart close to Him. Pray for others that their hearts would be converted by Christ’s transforming power.

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 29 Read Mark 6:45-7:13 Does anyone enjoy exams? In school, exams are necessary to reveal what we know and what we still need to learn. As followers of Christ, many test are given to us for the same reason. Jesus often gave His disciples “exams” to see whether they understood what He was teaching them. The disciples were slow learners. The Lord knew how short their memories were, so He arranged a test: He sent them into a storm. They didn’t do too well. The Lord is so merciful that even in our failures, He is still faithful. He was faithful to pray for the disciples while they were in the boat and He was on land. They were never really alone, and neither are we. He was faithful to come to them, right where they were. He walked on top of the troubled waters. What was over their heads was under His feet! He was faithful to calm their fears by calming the storm. He was faithful to step into their boat and patiently continue to develop and perfect their faith. There would be more tests, but in each one, Jesus would prove His faithfulness and grow their faith.

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 28 Read Mark 6:21-44 It was the miracle everyone talked about. Jesus affected more people at this event than in any of His other miracles. It’s called the feeding of the 5000, but some suggest the crowd was actually close to 20,000! What is everyone talking about today? Bad economy. Debt crisis. Gas prices. War in Ukraine? Problems are on people’s minds, and they’re talking about them endlessly, especially with social media. Our problems should turn us to Jesus! God uses problems to bring us face-to-face with our deficiencies so that we might view His sufficiency as our only alternative. Every problem we have is an opportunity for us to believe in His power and goodness and to watch Him work in a miraculous way. What we need to recognize is something Vance Havner expressed well: “We are shipwrecked on God and stranded on omnipotence!” The day Jesus fed the multitudes, the need was great — thousands had nothing to eat. When Jesus took the bread and fish in His hands, “they all ate and were filled” (Mark 6:42). What do you need to put in His hands? There’s no need too big and no concern too small. You can trust your loving Savior to provide for any need.

Daily Walk Though the New Testament May 27 Read Mark 5:37-6:20 Do you believe the Lord can do anything? That is exactly what He says in His Word: “With God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27). Intellectual atheists say there is no God. Practical atheists say God is real, but they live as if God is not really involved in their lives. They believe in Him, but you would never know it by the way they live. There is a stark contrast seen in today’s passage: a dad & mom who believed Jesus in a desperate situation (Mark 5:38-43), and a cynical crowd of unbelievers who had no clue who was standing before them (Mark 6:1-6). The unbelieving crowd in Nazareth proves that the tragic consequence of unbelief is seeing nothing. Today, choose to believe God and watch Him work. It is true that believing is seeing!

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 26 Answer the following questions concerning your readings this week: 1.) How do you need Christ — the One who heals the sick, calms the storms, and rules the Sabbath — to intervene in your life today? 2.) In what areas of your life do you need to start fully obeying God, which will bring the most honor and glory to Him?

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 25 Read Mark 5:11-36 Mark 5 gives an account of the only incident in Scripture when Jesus directly addressed a woman as “daughter” (vs. 34). Can you imagine how that made her feel? As someone who was considered unclean by her community because of her health condition, she probably couldn’t remember the last time anyone had a kind word for her or used a term of affection for her. More than likely, she couldn’t remember the last time anyone looked at her with anything but disgust. She was an outcast — poor, lonely, and desperate. Yet, with a look of love that only He could give, Jesus tenderly called her “daughter.” Why did He refer to her that way? Because our kinship with Jesus is not established by blood but by faith. This woman had touched the hem of His garment thinking, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well” (vs. 27-28). She believed Jesus could heal her, and He made mention of her great faith, saying it had made her well. Every time we place our faith in the risen Christ, we activate God’s power, we elevate God’s purpose, and we celebrate God’s presence. In every difficulty, God is always asking this one question: “Do you trust Me or not?” May your answer always be yes!

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 24 Read Mark 4:21-5:10 We all face storms of some kind in life — storms of illness, unemployment, unfaithfulness, betrayal. They are real, and they play no favorites. In every storm there’s a lesson we need to learn about fear and faith, and it is rooted in Jesus’ question to the disciples: “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). They had a choice. They didn’t have to be controlled by fear, and in fact, they had every reason not to be. Every time you face a storm in your life, you can face it with fear or you can face it with faith. The One who stills the storm says, “TRUST ME!”

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 23 Read Mark 3:28-4:20 God is more anxious for you to know His will than you are to find it. In fact, it’s not really your responsibility to find the will of God. It is your responsibility to DO the will of God. If God wants you to know His will, it’s His responsibility to reveal it. It is your responsibility to obey it. Scripture is clear in saying that obedience is a birthmark of the believer. A store that was having a going-out-of-business sale hung a huge sign that said, “No refunds. No returns. All transactions final.” That describes the kind of no-excuses, sold-out obedience God wants from us, the kind Jesus described in Mark 3:35. Trust and obey god as He reveals His will to you — it’s the only way God’s children truly live!

Daily Walk Through the New Testament May 22 Read Mark 2:23-3:27 In God’s created world, even dirt needs to rest (Exodus 23:10-11). It’s in keeping with His command to keep the Sabbath and devote 1 day out of 7 to rest. But some things never get to rest — and shouldn’t. Obeying God never takes a break. Loving others never takes a vacation. Ministering to others’ needs never takes a hiatus. The Lord of the Sabbath plucked grain and healed a man on the Sabbath, and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves every day of the week! The best way to honor the Sabbath is to follow Jesus’ lead.