ADHD Gospel, Day 23 Guilt. Read Mark 6:7-16. Today’s verses are two stories that often are read separately, yet when I saw them today and read them together, they make so much sense together. Jesus sends out a group of people, his disciples, into the cities to preach and to teach and to share the message that people are to repent and turn to him. His disciples go and do exactly what he has told them to do. Because they do that, the king Herod hears about it. When Herod hears about it, he is immediately reminded of the message of John the Baptist, and he has tremendous guilt over…

ADHD Gospel, Day 22 Disrespect and Disbelief. Read Mark 6:1-6. We all want to be believed. When we are trying to share information or convince others of something, it can be very frustrating when they don’t believe. Jesus faced this scenario. He had gone back to the area where he grew up and unfortunately, the people there only remembered him as a boy and his life growing up. They did not see him as the authoritative figure with the power that he truly had. Instead they didn’t believe what he was saying or what he was doing. Scripture says that Jesus didn’t do much while he was there because they…

ADHD Gospel, Day 21 Don’t be afraid. Read Mark 5:35-43. We’ve all been afraid. As a parent, one of the things that can create the most fear in our life is dealing with difficult situations with our children. When our children are in pain or hurting or struggling with something, that can be one of the most fearful and fear inducing situations for any parent. This dad had to be feeling that way about his little girl. People had told him that his daughter had died, but Jesus said to not be afraid and to believe in him. As a result, the man saw a miracle and his daughter was…

ADHD Gospel, Day 18 What to do with Jesus. Read Mark 5:11-20. For centuries, this has been the question. We’ve read scripture, and we see the things that Jesus does. We seek to understand why and how and for what reason, but ultimately, the question always comes back to us and what are we going to do with Jesus? Jesus has remained the same. He is steadfast he is consistent and we can trust him. But, we ultimately have to decide how we are going to respond to Jesus. As we finish this story, we see the man. He is changed remarkably, indescribably changed. He is changed in a way…

ADHD Gospel, Day 17 Leave things the same! Read Mark 5:1-10. How many times have we begged Jesus to not change things in our life? Certainly, we all have the specific things that we want Jesus to improve or to heal, but ultimately, most of us really don’t want him to upend our life. We want to maintain the status quo and just continue on that way. Jesus never leaves people the same. Satan and his demons knew it then, and they know it today. As we read this story of a man who was possessed by multiple demons, their one cry to Jesus was to let them be. Let…

ADHD Gospel, Day 16 Does Jesus care? Read Mark 4:35-41. Often as I’ve gone through life, I’ve heard many people talk about how they just don’t feel like Jesus cares. They just don’t feel like God cares about their situation, their struggles, or the pain that they’re going through. That feeling is nothing new. Here, we see Jesus and his disciples in a boat going through difficult situation with storms. The disciples actually end up asking him. “Hey, don’t you care?” Jesus responds by addressing their situation. However, Jesus could never have been upset or worried. He knew what control he had. He knew what the storm could do and…

ADHD Gospel, Day 15 Understanding. Read Mark 4:26-34. How much do we really understand? So many times we think we know things and we think we have a good grasp of concepts. Yet, the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized that I really don’t understand much of anything at all. As Jesus was speaking with the people and speaking with the disciples, he used parables as a way to help them understand difficult concepts. He was helping them understand. Jesus gave them as much information as they could understand at that point. So often, Jesus is doing the same thing today. He is giving us as much information as…

ADHD Gospel, Day 14 What are you hearing? Read Mark 4:21-25 As one of the 5 senses, our hearing impacts a tremendous amount of our daily life. All the things that we listen to and hear can influence the actions that we take. It influences where we look and where we go. You’re hearing is often considered to be the second most valued sense, behind sight. So Jesus asks the question, what are you listening to? What are you using your hearing to hear? When we start to think about having ears to hear, are we open to hear in the message of the Gospel? Are we open to hearing…

ADHD Gospel, Day 13 Which soil are you? Read Mark 4:1-20. Jesus often speaks in parables. Here in Mark, the first that Mark shares is the parable of the soil. Jesus shares a story about seed being left on four different types of soil and how that how each soil responds. A few verses later, Jesus explains this parable to his disciples. The seed is the message of the kingdom of God and each soil is a difference in how a person responds. Certainly as we read it, everybody wants to be the good soil. But I just noticed that there’s actually different types of good soil. Some of the…