Luke 2

The thing that I found the most interesting about this passage was the two people Simeon and Anna. They were two people that I haven’t heard about and are forgotten in the story of Jesus’ youth.
What was fascinating was that they knew their purpose was to be in a place that God can use them and they were two of the first people to welcome the Messiah into the world. I find the thing that Simeon said to Mary to be quite telling "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

Luke 1

This is a long chapter with a lot going on.
A few thoughts I had:

• In today's world, I don't know how excited people would be if they found out they were having a child at such an old age.
• Zechariah must have been sared and excited at the same time. How cool it would be to be visited by an angel that was sent from God to deliver a message to you.
• How tough it would be to not be able to speak until after your child is born and is named. I guess it was God's collateral to make sure that they named him John.

Mark 16

How cool is it that Jesus wasn't in the tomb? After years of following Jesus and hearing of his teachings, they see a miracle happen to him. It is just the icing on the cake from his life. After seeing what he did, it is a nice springboard to all of those that he left on earth to go and share his good word.

Mark 15

Boy those chief priests sure do know how to stir up a crowd. I would have liked to see the sales pitch that they gave to the people in the crowd that would make them choose to release a murder over Jesus. I wonder what it would take to convince a crowd today of the same thing? People then were looking at the priests in high regard and probably trusted their words too much. Today in America, there are more people that can be skeptics to a situation and not as easily swayed. I'm sure if you were in the right place today it could happen, but I think people are less willing to follow the words of a few without having to give more reasons.

Mark 14

If some person wanted to annoint my body with that much perfume, I wouldn't want it to happen. Can you imagine how strong Jesus smelled after that? It seems like a couple of sprays are enough to make a person gag, imagine a whole bottle!
Peter's denial is also something good to see. Jesus knew that Peter would fall behind. It is nice to konw that Jesus knows that even the strongest will fail at times. It gives some encouragement to me knowing that I have no where near that faith that Peter did.

Mark 13

Watch and wait for the Lord to come. In verses 7 and 8, it talks about how our world is today. Is Jesus coming soon? That is a question that I don't have an answer to. That happens a lot to me. Especially teaching 4th graders. I hope Jesus comes soon. I also am selfish because I want to see my girls grow up. When I get to Heaven, will I know my girls? Will they be able to talk to me? I can't wait to find out.

Mark 12

I read the parable of the tenants twice. I don't really remember that one at all. I read it in a couple of versions and tried to see if there was any way that there were parts of it that I remembered. The rest of the chapter I remembered. That was the weird part. I remembered

• Give to Ceasar that which is Ceasar's
• The many marriages of the widow
• Love your neighbor as yourself
• The widow giving the two coins

I don't know where or how I missed that story, it is just weird.