YouVersion Reformation Reading Plan, day 297

Mark 5 §

There’s a legion of demons in this man. They are controlling him, and no one can subdue him. They ask Jesus’ permission to go into some pigs instead. That is weird. They are in control of an uncontrollable man, and yet they cannot overstep Christ’s authority enough to take over some pigs. Christ’s authority is absolute. Complete. Even over the demons.

And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Mark 5:20

Jesus tells the synagogue ruler not to fear… after his child has just died. There is no hope, and Christ tells him to believe. This is beyond the point of giving up, beyond the point of no return, beyond the point of there being any earthly possibility of help for his daughter. And Christ tells him to believe. If you are asking God for a miracle, how far out beyond the realm of possibility have you gone with Him?

Jeremiah 29 §

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.”

Jeremiah 29:5-9

God commands us to seek the good of our neighbors, where He has sent us. We are not to ignore them, thinking that we will return home “any day now”. We are to love them and seek the best for them, and not decrease. It is never too late to love those around us.

Jeremiah 30 §

“…I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
for who would dare of himself to approach me?”
declares the LORD.

Who indeed can approach the living God?

Jeremiah 31 §

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