If you have been following closely with our sermon series in Mark you may have picked up on this theme of Jesus always seeming to lead His disciples right into the thick of messy and difficult situations; run in's with religious leaders, sick people, large crowds, demon possessed people, and raging storms on the sea. This weeks passage follows the same pattern. In each of these stories, the packaging is different, but the ultimate purpose remains the same: to show the disciples how Jesus calms their fears through faith in Him. This message somehow continually goes over their head, and their understanding is dull. We see in this weeks passage (Mark 6:45-56) it says the disciples "did not understand... and their hearts were hardened." Jesus is slowly but surely leaking the information the disciples need to understand who He is and what His Kingdom is like, but they will not come to understand what He is meaning until the Resurrection.

Do you, like the disciples, become hardened to Christ when you do no understand His methods in revealing Himself to you?

Do you only recognize Jesus in the good of life, or can you "trace the rainbow through the rain" (as an old hymn says it), and see that even in the storms of life Jesus is present?

Do you know this Jesus who allows you to go through the storm, enters the storm with you, all while also being completely sovereign over the storm?

All these questions and topics will be covered this week as we continue to study this Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Mark. 

Some songs we will be singing this week...

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"

"Worthy, Worthy" by Vertical Church Band

"Nothing but the Blood"