I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. John 12:46 NASB.

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8 NLT.

Have you ever felt completely inadequate? As I raised just a handful of people I love to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, in prayer this morning, I realized how beyond measure are the woes of this world; and each one rooted in the same basic lie. That God is so distant as to be not there at all. Unknown personally. How do we overcome that horrible lie? I don’t know. I only know that when I needed Him in my deepest darkness, He was there. And He brought me Home to Him. And being Home with Him, there is hope. And I can read our chapter, Mark 2, and realize the “old wineskins” are our minds that cannot or will not see what our spirits know…that Creator God loves us and we are His. Now imagine the impact that seeing and listening to Jesus Himself, the Son, had…because He was right there among them! No distance, no lies. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to Him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” v. 1-5. I just saw that. Jesus saw their faith. Now some of the teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” v. 6-7. Their question is about to be answered. Immediately Jesus knew in His Spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So He said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” v. 8-12. Does our heart open up just a little bit even as our rational minds strive to believe? Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them. As He was walking along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow Me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed Him. v. 13-14. Levi son of Alphaeus is our Matthew of the Book of Matthew! While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” v. 15-16. Sorry to interrupt the verses but it’s good to stop and consider why these words were written. When we consider all of humanity brought into existence by our Creator God, more numerous than the grains of sand or the stars in the sky, and their numbers beyond knowing, how can we possibly grasp the immensity of the love of God? We see “tax collectors and sinners”. How can we not? God sees people to eat with, to experience life with, to heal, to bring love to, love so needed by every single one of us! Jesus did not do what the “righteous” expected their Messiah to do. And when Jesus was asked why His disciples were not fasting, He answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? They cannot, so long as they have Him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” v. 19-22. Jesus, the Son, is bringing new understanding that the old ideas and mindset of worshiping a distant God could not contain. Something had to give. Our minds cannot conceive what our spirits understand and long for. God’s love. That’s why He came. Every example of the Pharisees not accepting or understanding God are a wake-up call for each one of us. Are we rigid in our own thinking? Has that rigidness of mind left us without hope and overwhelmed? One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He answered, “Have you never read what David said when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for the priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” v. 23-28.

David entered into the House of God. We can enter into the love of God and find Home. He will help us shed our “old garments” and bring new hope and better understanding that our spirits long for with Him. How great is that!!!