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Created by: David Negreiro

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This devotional Guide is not meant to put

this time with God in a box. Experience

the God of Creation for who He is. Let

this only be a guide to you. Find freedom

in reading the Word exploring all of it

and letting it pierce your heart.

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Start off in prayer:Pray that God would reveal to you what He is speaking.Pray that His word would pierce your heart and mold you.

Read Mark 1:16-20 twice

A few people in Jewish Palestine were rich, most were generally poor. But there were some,like fishermen, that tended to fall between rich and the poor.

James and John were clearly not poor. They had hired servants this is something that only

people with money had. We can see that none of these disciples left their business behind be-

cause it was failing, they left behind well paying jobs. Jesus is the giver of life, everything

else is worthless.Do you find it hard to just give up everything and follow Jesus because you feel like you have

life in control? Do you feel like continuing your life the way it is because its comfortable orsecure?

Many Jewish teachers in Jesus day felt that the greatest commandment was to honor one's

parents. To abruptly leave behind ones family and the family business was a great sacrifice

that went against everything the culture taught. It was more radical to Jesus followers thanleaving behind money, to them it was completely engrained into their way of life.

Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

What is the most comfortable part of your life? How does God change the way you view theway your life should be lived? How different is the way you live than that of the people

around you?.

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Disciples usually sought out their own teachers. Because discipleship often involved tempo-rarily laying aside ones livelihood and being apart from ones wife and children, the decision

to choose a teacher would have normally been made only after much deliberation.Do you realize the commitment that it is to follow God? What does it look like?

Are you ready to follow God in this way?

Are you blindly willing to follow God and let go of the things you hold to?

What would it take for you to follow Jesus like His disciples did?

End in prayer.

Pray that God would break down things that are stopping you from

following Him. Things at school. Things at church. Things on the

field. Things at home. Things with friends. Things with enemies.

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Start off with prayer:

Pray that God would help and guide you.Pray thanks and praises to the powerful and great God.

Read Mark 1:21-28 twice

Most synagogues were conducted by lay leaders, but those most skilled in the scripturesmost certainly contributed their share when the Old Testament was to be expounded. They

would try and expound on the law by explaining the proper way to translate it and apply it.

Jesus teachings went quite a bit further than this, He spoke with authority.

What sort of picture do you paint of Jesus? Put yourself in the shoes of someone at this event,

describe Jesus.

Lets look at Jesus power over the spiritual forces. Jesus encounter demons and we can see

part of who He is by how he deals with them. Demons were often associated with magic. Ma-

gicians tried to overcome other spiritual forces by invoking their names. If this demon is try-ing to do this, it doesnt work. In Jewish literature, demons recognized their inability to harmthose who walked close to God.

How do we know when were encountering a demon? How would we react? We need to walk

closely with God to have wisdom and authority in this situation. Write a note to God tellingHim how you will draw closer to Him.

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Demons were rebuked and subdued with orders like Be silent. Rebukes in the New Testa-

ment never involved a formal statement like I rebuke you.

Exorcists, people who tried to chase out demons, used phrases like come out of so-and-soas parts of magical incantations. They had two main methods of expelling demons. First wasby revolting or scaring the demon with smelly roots and such. Second was by invoking the

name of a higher spirit to get rid of the lower one. Therefore people are amazed that Jesus can

simply order the demons to leave.Describe your idea of a demon.

What do demons fight against?

What would you do if you saw a demon?

What did Jesus do? Describe the interaction between Jesus and the demon.

Jesus came with authority and power. Do you serve God knowing his authority and power or

do you overlook that aspect?

God is the only source of power

End in prayer.

Pray that God will work through you with power.

Pray that you will continue to do His work.

Thank God for His blessings

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Start off with prayer:

Pray that God would give you boldnessPray that God would give you courage

Pray that your heart would break for your spiritually lost friends

Read Mark 2:1-12 slowly and carefully

We pick up the story and we see that the room is packed with many people following Jesus.

In our times its not normal for four people to dig through roofs if the house is too crowded.And it wasnt normal in Jesus time either.

What are you willing to do to meet Jesus? What are some things that you have done? What

are some things that others have done that inspired you?

What kind of friends did this paralytic man have?

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to bring your friends to Jesus?

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Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic. This was an absolutely radical statement. Jesus was

essentially claiming that He is God. The people in the room were stunned. They were sayinghe was blaspheming which is punishable by death. Yet still Jesus had compassion on this

man.On a scale of 1-10 how bold are you? Think of a situation you arent bold in, that you knowyou should be. Take some time and pray that God would give you boldness in this area.

The people in the room didnt believe that Jesus was the son of God. At the same time some

people believed that doing of miracles was verification that the teacher was Gods representa-

tive. During this time there were many false teachers who claimed they could do miracles butactually couldnt. Many of the people in the room probably lumped Jesus together with thiscrowd. But with so many witnesses, this probably drastically changed the minds of the peo-

ple.

End in prayer.Pray for 4 of your spiritually lost friends

Pray that God would speak through you to them

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Start off with prayer:

Pray that you would only seek God as the provider.Pray for those in need.

Read Mark 2:18-22

We read that Jesus gets questioned about fasting, but His response doesnt seem to makemuch sense. We need to know where the Pharisees are coming from. The background is that

the Pharisees could have been fasting for a few reasons. It could have been simply out of tra-

dition, because many of them fasted two days a week, or it could have been an expression of

mourning. Johns disciples could have possibly been fasting as an expression of repentance

designed to hasten the coming of the time of redemption. So then the Pharisees were ques-tioning Jesus.

What does Jesus say though? How does he turn the conversation? What does he say aboutmourning in verse 19?

Wedding celebrations were a time of great joy and celebration. To fast at a wedding would beirrational. What then is our response to being in the presence of Jesus? Read 1 Thessalonians

5:16.

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Jesus redefined the ways of thinking of the people around him. Read verses 21-22. Do you

live joyously? Do you live knowing the God of creation is alive and in love with you?

Jesus here was showing that there was a difference in times. Fasting was used for different

reasons by the Old Testament and John the Baptist. The heralded the coming of a new age.

But Jesus changed that once again by ringing in the day of salvation.Do you recognize that new change? Do you fast? Why do you fast? Is it for the same reason

Jesus did or the same reason the Pharisees did?

End in prayer.Pray for joy from the giver of life.

Pray for God to guide you into his new plan for us.

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Start off with prayer:

Pray that God would give you discernment to understand His callPray that God would mold you.

Read Mark 3:13-19 meditatively

Mountains were places were people went to connect with God. What way does that illumi-nate our idea of what Jesus is doing here?

Why did Jesus appoint them?

What kind of authority do the apostles have?

Do you feel like these apostles? Do you feel like you can relate or does it seem like this couldonly apply to the life of the apostles?

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The fact that there were 12 of them specifically meant that they were to be the new remnant of

obedient Israel, the new Israel. They were the family of God.Do you know what that means? Do you live under the understanding that you are Gods cho-

sen?