Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

And I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman [Eve], and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heal - Genesis 3:15 And, thus, the love of God for me, his fallen creature, is shown: in conflict and in violence. The heart of the Gospel, the first proclamation of God's rescuing me from the consequences of my sin is revealed as one that will do violence. I was once a child of the serpent; a child of the Devil. But God loved me too much to allow me to occupy a place at the serpent's table and began his assault. His love did so offend me that I bristled at it. I tried to ignore it. How dare he tell me what to do? He (is he really even a "he" anyway?) this "god" is going to tell me that the way I am living my life is so wrong? Who have I hurt? What have I stolen? Who have I killed? He seems to want to put me on the same plane as that guy I know who cheated on his wife or that other person on the ne

On hearing this, Jesus said to then, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." - Mark 2:17 "The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Jesus answered, "I who speak to you am he." - John 4:25-26 So, like me, the woman in John 4 made a complete train wreck of her life. Through a series of bad choices by her and, without a doubt, the men that she had married she had burned through five relationships and was now on her sixth. If there was ever someone who was talked about, ridiculed, objectified, and taken advantage of in the town where she lived I would imagine it was her. I am sure that she was avoided like the plague and that her life was deemed as unworthy of the smallest courtesy. Perhaps in self-preservation she found herself alone at the well. God knew everything about her. Absolutely everything a

I (not that I am the measure of all things, but I am pretty sure you will get my drift) find the miracles that Christ performed absolutely remarkable for a number of reasons. Quite obviously they demonstrated his power over every spiritual and natural force imaginable, but that is not why they have impressed me so much. Now I know that the purpose of Christ's miracles was to prove that the message he delivered was authentic and God-directed. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in Matthew 11 where Jesus rested the authentication of his identity on the miracles he performed as they were foretold by the prophets. But I find it so telling that God, in his great compassion for us, chose to prove who he was by radically altering the trajectory of people's lives for the better. Of all the things that he could have done to validate his Son's identity he chose to wrap it in gift, after gift, after gift. No longer would the blind man have to beg for food. No longer would the wom