Hey everyone, the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow comes from Mark 9:14-29 - its titled "Powerful Faith" - Looking ahead at the lesson titles, I became thrilled that the next few lessons focus on this amazing action word "Faith." - Today's lesson begins at verse 14 of Mark ch 9. Jesus comes back down from the mountain to his disciples and He saw the scribes questioning them. Jesus is immediately greeted by the crowd when he arrives on the scene and asks the scribes "what question or discussion are you having with them?" (His disciples) - Verse 17 brings out that one of the men in the crowd, a father, spoke up and said "Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by a mute spirit and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” - Jesus then says "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” - Pause - Why do you think Jesus said that?, as Christians, we are all given the tools we need to carry out the mission God has for our lives, we are never left bearing more than we can handle. Jumping back to Matthew 10:7-8 Jesus tells the disciples "7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." So, it was previously made known to them that they had what they needed to heal this boy - lets keep reading; we see how its described that the unclean spirit that is inside the boy is violent at times and tries to kill him. The latter part of verse 22, the father of the sick boy says to Jesus "have mercy on us and help us, if you can" - After reading this fascinating verse in various versions of the Bible - they all indicated that this father lacked faith by saying "if you can" ..After the disciples were unable to heal, after witnessing his son being thrown around by this spirit for long, he had doubts. - to be honest, some of us probably would too. Then in verse 23 Jesus smoothly says “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” - How humbling as he cries out to for help to overcome his lack of faith. So then, Jesus casts out the unclean spirit and commands it to never enter the boy again. Verse 26 brings out how people in the crowd began to murmur saying "the boy is dead" (clearly still lacking faith) as the boy was just laying on the ground. But Jesus took him up by the hand and helped him to his feet. The lesson then ends with the disciples and Jesus having a conversation when alone "They ask Jesus why couldn't we cast the spirit out?" Jesus answered in verse 29 saying "this kind can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." This is an amazing scripture set - The last verse in this lesson indicates that they didn't pray and fast as they should from the get go. We are often faced with an unexpected event or emergency that arises; and during that state of emergency or opposition, we may not always remember to stop and pray. We are most effective when we take a step back to meditate and just talk to God. All it took for the disciples to be empowered and to resolve the issue at hand was to express faith and pray! We are not alone! Jesus said if we pray and believe; all things are possible!
To God be the glory! Keep Faith - love you all!
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