Hello Church! It’s Mike Melton again with another word regarding books. Last year I recommended a good book in our church library, Hostage Bound Hostage Free by Ben & Carol Weir. Well now, I would like to offer Church members a modest challenge. Read the Gospel of Mark all the way through in one day. You can do it fairly easily; the book is less than 30 pages long in most translations which is only a couple of hours. Because of the structure of traditional worship, we chop the biblical books into sound bites and we may lose the context, the big picture, the vision of the biblical author. Read it in one day because there are messages in the flow itself.
So why Mark?
Mark is the first and shortest of a new form of writing; a Gospel! Matthew and Luke admired it enough to it use as the template for their Gospels. The book rushes along, the word “immediately” shows up a lot and it sweeps you up to the crescendo of the cross. You can feel Jesus sadness and frustration build as His disciples never seem to “Get it.” So pick a date and take the “Mark Challenge.” If you need extra motivation, may I suggest you check out this beautifully illuminated presentation in rich and easily readable calligraphy.
I’m making this book available in the Church Office. Before the printing press was invented there were Bibles!
