Continuing our Gospel of Mark devotion series…
Find the introduction here.

Mark 1:1-11 John the Baptizer
Read Mark 1:1-11 here.

Mark introduces Jesus the Messiah by, appropriately, introducing John the Baptist first.

Mark describes John as, “thunder in the desert.” I picture a hot, dry wasteland. Nothing for miles with very little life. Suddenly the wind picks up, dark clouds are rushing in from all directions, and BAM!
Thunder rumbles then jolts the desert earth.
There is a pause, then over the open sky lightning crashes and a heavy rain begins to pour onto the cracked soil.
After the rain, the dessert, we once saw as a barren wasteland is teaming with life.
Out of a dull cactus pops up bright purple flowers and from nowhere, animals come out to drink from the fresh rain water pooled in the dips a hollows of the once barren terrain.

John is the thunder, the jolt that alerts us to run for cover from the storm.
Jesus is the much needed rain that pours over the ground giving life.
John is the opening act, the one that grabs our attention before the headliner.
Jesus is the “the star in this drama” whose words direct the plot of our stories.

Much Most of the time I think of myself as the star in my own life.
I want to do things that make me happy. Pursue things that make me feel passionate. I want to be surrounded by people who encourage me. And I want to stay away from people who provide more drama than normal… ahem.
Those aren’t bad things. Our time here is short, and we should be looking for ways to be happy.
But it’s also the easy way out.
There is so much more.
We can be the thunder in the desert.
We can be the opening act.
We can get the attention of the people around us and point it toward our creator!
We can.
We think we can’t.
But we can.

After John proclaimed to the people about the coming Messiah. Jesus, the physical Messiah, entered the scene with signs and wonders and Truths about the Kingdom. It’s not the same for us. We have the Holy Spirit, which is real, and always here, and better then having Jesus with us. But the Holy Spirit is also quiet, and gentle, and sometimes easily ignored.
It’s easy to chalk things up to luck or coincidence, instead of giving credit to the Holy Spirit orchestrating events in our lives.
It’s easy to get prideful and take credit for our accomplishments, instead of acknowledging out strengths are a gift from God.

There is so much more when we step back and just let the sweet rain wash over us.
There is so much more when we allow the Holy Spirit to be the star of the drama.

Pray boldly to be the John in someone’s life. Let us be more aware of the Holy Spirit’s role in the events of our lives when we are tempted to let others think we can do it all, or when we are embarrassed to point in the direction of Jesus.
I’m praying to be more aware of the Holy Spirit.
I’m praying the words to the song below on repeat.
The lyrics say: Holy spirit you are welcome here, come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory God is what our hearts long for. To be overcome by your presence Lord. Let us be more aware of Your presence, let us experience the glory of Your goodness.

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. -Isaiah 40:3

I received The Message version of the Bible about five years (and two kids) ago as a gift from my mom at Christmas. I wanted to just pick up the Bible and read it like I read books. I wanted to get lost in the narratives and read the letters with the expectancy and reverence the early church must have had when a new letter from Paul circulated into their gatherings.

What I did was put the Message version on my living room shelf. I would pick it up when referencing a verse from time to time. But with every child born, my quiet times were few and far between. Then my mom fell and died and Jesus met me again in a whole new way.
Jesus is real my friends.
Just as real as that coffee you’re sipping right now. (Or am I the only coffee addict?)
Then I started writing for HomeFront Magazine and that was cool because my job was to write about Jesus. (Really really cool. Amazing. And a dream come true.)
AND now I homeschool, so I have more time to be in the word and write.

I wanted to challenge myself with just reading through the Bible. No time frame… I mean, I read a novel a week, so technically I could read the whole Bible very quickly. I thought of trying the One Year Bible (again). I think the One Year Bible is great! But I wanted to read through a whole book at a time, instead of jumping around.
So far, things are going so well, so I’ve decided to record what I’m learning!

Take you Bible off the shelf and let’s get lost in this great book together!

Introduction
(I couldn’t find the book introductions on the internet. For those of you who don’t own The Message version in print, you can buy it here .)

I chose to go through the gospel of Mark first because of the introduction.
The introduction of Mark says, “Mark wastes no time in getting down to business.“
Yep, that sounds good to me… I don’t have time to waste.
It goes on to say, ”There’s an air of breathless excitement in nearly every sentence he (Mark) writes. The sooner we get the message, the better off we’ll be, for the message is good, incredibly good: God is here, and he’s on our side.”

As a mom of small children I can get so involved with caretaking (aka, cutting apples and wiping butts) that I forget God is here. He is with me now, right now! Even better than that,
He is on my side.
When I’m filled with frustration at the end of a long day and Tess drops a whole bag of graham crackers on our dark wood floors then stomps them in to a trillion little pieces.
God is here, and on my side.
When Cy runs to the opposite side of the grocery store screaming and I’m getting judgmental stares from the people around me as I try to make an extremely embarrassed quick exit.
God is here, and on my side.
When Eli feels defeated and stupid during our reading lesson and nothing I say seems to get through or encourage him,
God is here, and on my side.

Take a second to let that sink in. Pray in your weak, frustrated, angry, or embarrassed moments that you would hear the gentle whisper from God saying, “I am here and on your side.”