Deuteronomy 2 Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have begun to give …
Category Archives: RTB 2025 – Search the Scriptures, Part 2
March 27 / Deuteronomy 1
Deuteronomy 1 Today Search the Scriptures has us returning to the Old Testament to go through the book of Deuteronomy. Please take a minute or two to read the introductory section of our February 21, 2023 post. I’ll wait… As is true for much of the rest of Deuteronomy, this first chapter recounts history that …
March 26 / Mark 9:30-50
Mark 9:30-50 Do you take sin seriously? Jesus certainly does. Consider Mark 9:42-48, where Jesus says that it is better to discard offending body parts and enter the Kingdom of God maimed rather than to be thrown whole into hell. A little thought about all this should readily tell us that Jesus is not to …
March 25 / Mark 9:1-29
Mark 9:1-29 “…But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:22b-24 Who among us cannot relate to this …
March 24 / Mark 8:27-38
Mark 8:27-38 Today’s reading has long been seen as the pivotal passage of the Gospel of Mark, first with Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ (or the Messiah, the Anointed One) (Mark 8:29), and then with Jesus’ teaching about his approaching suffering, death, and Resurrection. (Mark 8:31) The notion of a suffering Messiah is …
March 23 / Mark 8:1-26
Mark 8:1-26 Dear RTB’ers, Today will be my last post for a while. I am having shoulder replacement surgery tomorrow morning and will be out of action for a while. I’ll be in a sling for about a month and then a few more months of recuperation and rehab. John S. has said that he …
March 22 / Mark 7:24-37
Mark 7:24-37 Dear RTB’ers, Fairly early on in my “active” Christian walk I was reading through I Corinthians for the first time and in chapter 11 I saw Paul’s words, very similar to the words that our priests speak at the elevation of the host and the cup: that the Lord Jesus on the night …
March 21 / Mark 7:1-23
Mark 7:1-23 Dear RTB’ers, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29:13, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (v. 7) Putting myself into this “story” (this Isaiah verse), I split the verse in half at the semicolon and …
March 20 / Mark 6:30-56
Mark 6:30-56 Dear RTB’ers, The feeding of the five thousand is one of only two incidents outside of Holy Week that is recorded in all four gospels, the other being Jesus’ baptism. I can imagine that the Jewish people who were there and were part of this miracle would later recall their ancestors wandering in …
March 19 / Mark 6:6b-30
Mark 6:6b-30 Dear RTB’ers, We never know the exact time frame for Jesus in Mark’s gospel, or in any of the other gospels, for that matter. But it was only a few days ago (Mark 3:13, ff.) that we saw His twelve apostles named. So, one wonders how long they had been with Jesus before …