by John Mark and Lauren Wendler

1) What have you been learning?

We have been learning a lot in the first chapter of the book of Mark. The purpose of Mark’s gospel was to prove that Jesus was the Son of God to a Gentile audience. We see that people reacted to the gospel the same way in John the Baptist’s time as today: some believed, some thought they didn’t need it, others thought it was crazy. Jesus was baptized so he could relate to sinners, and He then immediately submitted to the Spirit’s impelling him to go into the wilderness and be tempted by Satan. Jesus can sympathize with our weakness because he underwent this testing and trials. We then see how Jesus sought out the disciples, and Peter, James, John, and Andrew were immediately obedient by leaving their nets (and their father for James and John!) to follow Jesus.

2) What has been particularly challenging for you?

Having a Lord that sympathizes with us really challenges us to give all our desires and passions for what we do and want to accomplish to be more in line with the life Jesus calls us to(self-sacrifice, loving others, etc.) The disciples willingness to drop what they were in the middle of doing to follow Jesus is especially challenging as it is easy to hold tightly to the security a job provides, or the comforts of living in San Diego.

3) How has the study been stimulating your spiritual growth?

Seeing Jesus’ willingness to relate to the world by going through trials, calling his disciples with references to their occupation has caused a deeper love for scripture and has enhanced our prayer life by adjusting our mindset when talking to our Wonderful Lord and Savior who is also our Friend.

The Strengthening Your Relationship questions that we go through together, on our week off from Mark, help evaluate our spiritual health. We have found that the questions facilitate God glorifying conversations in which we can make it a habit to evaluate how we are doing and encourage each other along the way.