Focus:  Sometimes as we follow Jesus, we are the ones standing in our own way.  We tend to make inferences about Jesus and His work that are based on assumptions from our own experiences and observations.  These inferences and assumptions can often keep us from being open in the moment.  How you respond in crisis, or to rebuke, often shows what you assume to be true.  And what you expect from and think of God is often clear in what you are open to receive from Him. Main Text: Mark 4:35–41

Focus:  “You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.”  “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”  In Jesus’ time, one might have said, “Don’t judge the size of the plant by the size of the seed” or “The plant grows whether or not the gardener understands how.” God’s kingdom is no small thing, but it can be easy for us to judge based on what we see, and to get discouraged when we don’t see the results we want, or expect. Main Text: Mark 4:26–34

Blood is thicker than water, the saying goes.  Jesus, however, defines His family as those who do God’s will. There is one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, and no division in God’s family.  We are ushered into the family of God through the waters of baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  The thickest blood, it turns out, is the blood of Jesus, which covers us with Jesus, who did God’s will.

Main Text: Mark 3:20–35

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The singular God says, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves.”  God also says, “Look, I have given you..”  So which is it, us or I?  How can a man be born again?  How could all the people hear the preaching in their own native tongue at Pentecost?  Does our belief follow our eyes and understanding?  Or does our belief flow from God’s Word?

Main Text: John 3:1-17