{"id":36733,"date":"2025-07-25T22:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=36733"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:19:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:19:35","slug":"mark-3_1-6-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark-3_1-6-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Miss the Big Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 3:1-6 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 3:1-6.\u00a0With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 3:1-2 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 The Pharisees were in \u201cchurch\u201d, that is, in the synagogue, but their focus was not on worshiping Yahweh.\u00a0 Their focus was looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, to see in particular if Jesus would heal a worshipper in attendance with a shriveled hand.<\/p>\n

How about you?\u00a0 When you go to church, is your focus on giving God your best worship or are you more focused on seeing the people and judging what some of them do?\u00a0 It\u2019s no wonder Jesus was angry and \u201cdeeply distressed\u201d (v5) by the way the Pharisees conducted themselves in the synagogue.<\/p>\n

When you go to church, let your focus be on God and giving Him your best worship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>For if your focus is on seeing the people you like and judging the ones you don\u2019t like, you will completely miss the point of going to church, failing to give God worship and missing God\u2019s heart.\u00a0 But let your focus be on worshiping God and you\u2019ll catch God\u2019s heart for people in the process.<\/p>\n

Mark 3:3-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-4:\u00a0 The Pharisees had led the people in holding a mistaken view about the Sabbath day of rest.\u00a0 They were so focused on adhering to trivial man-made rules, such as \u201cis this person doing work on the Sabbath by healing someone?\u201d that they missed the bigger picture, which is that if God wants to heal someone on the Sabbath, isn\u2019t that a wonderful thing?\u00a0 So after telling the man with the shriveled hand to stand up, Jesus asks them all a question: “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”\u00a0 Jesus associates \u201cto do good and to save life\u201d with healing the man with the shriveled hand, while \u201cto do evil and to kill\u201d Jesus associates with not helping the man with shriveled hand at all.\u00a0 Jesus was leading people back to the big picture of God\u2019s purpose for the Sabbath day.<\/p>\n

May we not be so focused on the little things that we miss the bigger picture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as Jesus used this man with the shriveled hand to communicate a bigger lesson about who God is, so\u00a0whenever you experience a miracle, remember that behind the miracle is a greater lesson about who God is and what His heart is like<\/strong>.\u00a0 God is a healer, a restorer, one who loves to give life, to do good and to save.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Every miracle contains a message about who God is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark 3:5 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
\n<\/em>
\nOn verse 5:\u00a0 Once again we see the healing power of Jesus.\u00a0 But verse 5 tells us one more thing about Jesus:\u00a0 Jesus got angry.\u00a0 Jesus was angry and deeply distressed at the stubbornness of the Pharisees.\u00a0 Is anger a sin?\u00a0 Not when it is directed appropriately toward things that also bother God\u2019s heart.\u00a0 If you and I don\u2019t get angry at things such as injustice, racism, and abuse, then that is not a sign of godliness but of ungodliness.\u00a0\u00a0Anger has its place when sourced correctly and managed wisely.<\/strong>
\n
\nMark 3:6 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
\n<\/em>
\nOn verse 6:\u00a0 Whenever God is doing a great work, Satan is wanting to steal, kill and destroy it.\u00a0 As Jesus Himself says, \u201cThe thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.\u201d (John 10:10).\u00a0 \u00a0Like the Pharisees and the Herodians, we have a choice: will we join God in His mission to save others, or will we be part of destroying it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank You Jesus for never losing sight of the big picture.\u00a0 I pray I would not be so focused on little things that I miss the bigger thing that You are doing.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 3:1-6.\u00a0With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 3:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 The Pharisees were in \u201cchurch\u201d, that is, in the synagogue, but their focus was not on worshiping Yahweh.\u00a0 Their focus was looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, to see in particular if Jesus would heal a worshipper in attendance with a shriveled hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36736,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36733\/revisions\/36736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}