Family Bible Reading

  Monday, March 31 Mark 5:1-20           Commentary             We saw at the end of the last chapter that Jesus has the power to rebuke even the power of a harsh sea storm, and our passage today shows us Jesus’ power to rebuke the demonic and restore the cast out and marginalized. The description we get of the demon-possessed man is pitiful and tragic. He is so out of his mind and so marginalized he lives in the graveyard. Not everyone abandoned him as soon as he started acting like this, since people tried to restrain him from hurting himself, but by this point, everyone has given up. Nothing else could be done to help him, and night and day he would wander around the graveyard and hills nearby, wailing and cutting himself. On his own, this man can do absolutely nothing to help himself; all he can do is hurt himself and cry out in misery. His sorry state is a great picture ...

 To give further explanation of the doctrine of election, here is an essay I wrote on this topic in college: Introduction The doctrine of election is one of the doctrines of the Christian faith that is often misunderstood by lay people and is often debated among theologians and cocky seminary students (like myself). Christians should try to understand the doctrine of election, since the New Testament is full of references to election/predestination. One definition of  election  is "God's plan to bring salvation to the world. The doctrine of election is at once one of the most central and one of the most misunderstood teaching of the Bible. At the most basic level, election refers to the purpose of God whereby He has determined to effect his will... The word 'election' itself is derived from the Greek word,  eklegomai , which means, literally, 'to choose something for oneself.' This in turn corresponds to the Hebrew word,  bachar ... The Bible also uses other wo...