Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

Jesus “said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’)” –Mark 7:34 When Adam and Eve sinned, they were expelled from Paradise, and the door to Paradise was closed (Gn 3:23-24). Human beings then began to be closed off to God and to one another (see Gn 3:8ff). After the first sin, death entered the world and closed us off from the happiness of everlasting life. During the centuries following the first sin, more and more lives were closed down by sin’s escalating effects, such as war, sickness, starvation, racism, and violence. Then God became Man and walked into a closed...

“When she got home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.” –Mark 7:30 Our secular humanistic society likes to pretend that there are no demons, or, if there are demons, that not many of them are active around us. However, Pope St. John Paul II has stated that we in the Western world live in a culture of death. This implies that Satan, the prince of death (Heb 2:14), probably has his hosts of demons very active in our society, cities, neighborhoods, churches, and families. In our times, it may be even more appropriate to say...

“The Lord God planted a garden in Eden…and He placed there the man whom He had formed.” –Genesis 2:8 God freely and lovingly created man and gave him the breath of life. God not only provided man with an abundance of good food, but He also blessed man’s spirit by creating an environment that was “delightful to look at” (Gn 2:9). All of this was a sheer gift from God. In the world He created, God did not require man to produce his own food; that requirement was chosen by man when Adam and Eve decided to handle their own...

“This people pays Me lip service but their heart is far from Me. Empty is the reverence they do Me.” –Mark 7:6-7 Are you a person after God’s own heart who will carry out His every wish? (see Acts 13:22) Have you given your heart to the Lord? Is your heart beating as one with the Lord’s heart? Is your heart close to or far from the Lord? It is difficult to know our hearts (see Jer 17:9). However, the Lord has given us a way to judge the position of our hearts. Jesus said: “Wherever your treasure lies, there...

“God saw how good it was.” –Genesis 1:10, 12 God’s first creation was “good” (Gn 1:10, 12, 18, 25). God’s new creation in Jesus Christ is even better. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). “All that matters is that one is created anew” (Gal 6:15). God made His first creation “good,” but through the deceit of Satan, man fell into sin. Since then, all creation has been groaning in sorrow and agony (Rm 8:22). Then God gave His only Son to renew mankind and creation – not just to restore them to their...