Guest Blog #2 from Joyce Voysey
GOSPEL OF MARK – CHAPTER 1
John
the Baptist’s mission was to “prepare” the way for Jesus in
the same spirit as Elijah. Isaiah and Malachi also wrote about the way being
prepared. Hundreds, if not thousands,
came to him to be baptised. He didn’t go
to them – they found their way to him in the wilderness. Even Jesus came. Then John recognised that Jesus was the one
he came to prepare the way for. Dummelow reports that John says: “I can bring
you to repentance, but no further. My
baptism brings no grace. It only
symbolises the greater baptism that Jesus will give. His baptism will give you the Holy Ghost i.e.
new spiritual life, and inward sanctification, and “fire” i.e. holy fervour and
zeal in God’s service.”GOSPEL OF MARK – CHAPTER 1
Jesus
baptism: Was it at this time that he first realised he was
the Son of God? He saw the heavens
opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: and heard the void from
heaven pronouncing that fact. Perhaps
John heard it too, perhaps not.
Thursday 10th May – I’ve been reading and researching for 3 days and only up to verse 12!
Jesus
temptation – with wild beasts and angels – good
and evil influences were at war in his consciousness to tempt him into
believing he was not the Son of God (his first healing perhaps). The angels won the case. Jesus went immediately and enlisted disciples
and taught that the Kingdom of God was at hand.
He was recognised in the synagogue as speaking with authority and not as
the scribes taught. Immediately, right there in the
synagogue, he healed a man of an unclean spirit (Mark 1:23).
The people recognised the authority he
exhibited. The word spread around Galilee.
It was all Go for Jesus once
he knew what his job was.Now the second (third ?) healing: I have thought about the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law before, so will put that down before I share more recent insight. As Mark has it, Jesus recruited Peter and he left his nets and followed him. Why wouldn’t Peter’s mother-in-law suffer the fever of fear; fear because her son-in-law had left his business to go follow some itinerant preacher seemingly leaving the family with no means of support?
[Here is to-day’s (Friday 18.5.12) insight: Her healing freed her to minister to them. She was converted really, I guess. Jesus ‘lifted her up’. Her doubts were allayed – perhaps she was able to contribute to the family income somehow. Aha! Perhaps she made a living by healing – as she had been healed and lifted up.]
Note: Somewhere in the Glossary definition of fear in the German translation of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, there is the word ‘Angst.’ ...Found it: Anxiety is „Angst“ auf Deutsche (in German) - Page 586 of Science &Health -
ENGLISH - Fear: Heat; inflammation;
anxiety; ignorance; error; desire; caution.
GERMAN - Furcht:
Hitze; Entzündung; Angst; Unwissenheit; Irrtum; Verlangen; Vorsicht*.
There always seems to be another angle to a Bible
story to give us new inspiration.
Someone pointed out that we should not say, “This is the only
interpretation of this passage.”
Monday 14th
May - Mark
1:32 “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were
diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.”
“At even” What is the inference of that word, “even”? They brought the diseased to be healed, and “all
the city” was there to witness the work.
Many were healed of “divers diseases”.
Turning again to the Glossary in Science
and Health (S&H), we find (page 586) “EVENING” means “Mistiness of
mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind”.
Time perhaps for the Truth’s antidote to heal with “peace and rest”; that
beautiful time of day when the sun has set and a gentleness sweeps over the
land and the thought; a time to contemplate the wonders which the SUN (S&H p. 595: “The symbol of Soul
governing man, - of Truth, Life, and Love”) – has wrought in our day through
the light of Truth and Love. Devils
quieted and cast out.
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