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 ...

Monday, March 24 2 Peter 3           Commentary             As Peter closes this letter, he reminds his audience that God’s message has been consistent – he is working in the world now, he will ultimately and finally judge sin, and these things are true despite the continual presence of scoffers and doubters. The false teachers, AKA the scoffers, that Peter’s readers were dealing with, did have an accurate observation– since creation, everything has been fundamentally the same, with no final end to sin. They were onto something with this part – Ecclesiastes makes many of the same points – but they then wrongfully concluded that this means God isn’t actually going to punish sin and we can live however we want. As Peter explained, God is actually delaying his judgement to give sinners the opportunity to repent (see Romans 2:4). Peter reminds his readers that God has indeed judge...