on the walk

We pick up our series on the prayer of Jesus with the final prayer scene of the Gospel of Mark. We find Jesus in a time of crisis, praying in the garden. Take a moment and encounter Jesus in prayer. Continue Reading »

We are almost through the gospel of Mark in our search for all that Jesus models and teaches regarding prayer. In all of this my goal is to bring these reflections into immediate action in my life. I hope that a similar goal inspires you. If you want to see the whole series you can click on the category link just below the title of this post.

Today we come to the 12th chapter and Jesus find himself again in conflict with the scribes and Pharisees. This is late in his ministry and by this point, he holds little back. Continue Reading »

I have been putting off this post. There has been plenty to write about, so I could pretend that I have just been busy. But that would not be the whole truth. I have been putting off this post. As we work our way through Mark we have come to chapter 11 and we already talked about the temple as a house of prayer, and I for one was stunned by the power of that text which appeared after I went back and read the texts being quoted there. If you missed it, it is probably better than this post will be so you should check it out.

Let’s start by looking at the text. Continue Reading »

[Note: Don’t forget that you can see this whole series by clicking on the category links.]

It has a been a few days since the last post in this series, so to remind us and to catch up those who are new, this series is an attempt to looks at Jesus’ teaching and modeling of prayer. In the gospel of Mark we have so far seen Jesus model prayer but not really any direct teaching on prayer. That changes in chapter 11. Continue Reading »

[Note: If you ever want to look at this whole series, just click on the category “Praying with Jesus” and it will list all the post in this series.]

The next reference to prayer in the gospel of Mark is in chapter 9. Jesus and the three (James, John and Peter) come down from the mountain to find a scene of controversy. The other disciples (who have by this point had successful independent ministries that included exorcisms) have been unsuccessful in their attempts to help a frantic father whose son is possessed. Continue Reading »

Well I am embarrassed. I missed one of Jesus prayers.

This morning I was reading in Mark looking for prayers and I noticed that he “gives thanks” for the bread and “blesses” the fish as he prepares to feed the 4000. That prompted me to look back and of course he did the same thing when he blessed the food at the feeding of the 5000. So today we will talk about both. Continue Reading »

We are working through Mark, watching Jesus pray. We already saw how morning solitude and prayer is part of the opening whirlwind chapter which establishes the character of Jesus and his ministry. And in Mark prayer is not mentioned again until the sixth chapter. Continue Reading »

I have spend some time thinking about where to start. Jesus direct reaching on Prayer is most prominent in Matthew and Luke. My first impulse was to start with Matthew 6. But as I thought about it I realized I wanted to watch Jesus pray first. The disciples (including but not limited to the twelve) came to Jesus to be taught by him because they had watched Jesus pray and knew that something was different. I wonder if perhaps I will be more ready to hear what Jesus has to teach me if I watch him pray first. Continue Reading »

I have a terrible prayer life.

On an unrelated note, I was talking with a 13 year old kid about a year ago about Ultimate (the sport played with a Frisbee). I saw that he had received a new disc as a present and that packaged with the disc was a DVD about the rules and techniques of ultimate Frisbee. Continue Reading »