A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 3:20- 35 Was Jesus a Lunatic, Liar, or the Son of God?
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Could Jesus be a lunatic, a liar, or truly the Son of God? Join us as we examine Mark 3:20, where the reactions of Jesus’ own family and the religious leaders to His teachings and miracles are laid bare. We delve into the skepticism and concern from those closest to Him, who feared He might be out of His mind, and the accusations from the scribes and Pharisees who believed He was in league with Beelzebub. Through these narratives, we reflect on the challenge of understanding Jesus' true identity, resonating with C.S. Lewis's famous trilemma.
Discover the powerful analogy Jesus employs to assert His dominion over Satan, comparing Himself to a stronger man who can plunder the strong man's house. We draw meaningful connections to Zacchaeus's life transformation and grapple with the weighty topic of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, deemed the unforgivable sin. Unpacking Jesus' profound warning, we aim to demystify this often anxiety-inducing subject while emphasizing the heart of His message: forgiveness and redemption.
In our closing segment, we emphasize the peril of spiritual drifting and the hardening of hearts, illustrated through the metaphor of a plane’s flight path. Reflecting on the cautionary tale of Demas, we underscore the importance of staying true to one’s faith and seeking God's guidance. We invite listeners to engage in self-reflection, ask for divine intervention, and express gratitude for God's unwavering love and guidance, concluding with a heartfelt prayer for alignment and grace.
All right, mark, chapter 3, verse 20,. No rush getting through this great book of Mark, but we have seen that Jesus has been demonstrating who he was God in flesh, the heart of the Father, and some to some extent believe the disciples are following Jesus, but many we've found already this early in the story many disbelieve and they become the opposition. Today it's his family, jesus' own family, is disbelieving who he was, a little skeptical of, their big brother Jesus, worried he might be going off the deep end. We get it. It makes sense from their perspective to feel that way. There's also a growing opposition from the religious leaders. Nothing that surprises us, but we see it pretty clearly here today what's going on in their hearts. So everybody is determining who Jesus was and what they were going to do with him, and of course that is the truth.
Speaker 1:All the way through history Everybody has had to decide what to do with Jesus and most of us I think, especially in our neck of the woods here most of us would determine well, he's a good teacher. That seems to be, you know, not willing to say, oh, he was crazy, or he was evil or something like that, but we would say, oh well, he was a good teacher had some good things to say. Well, cs Lewis most of you probably heard this quote before he said that's not an option Just to say that Jesus was a good person, a good teacher?
Speaker 1:not an option. You got to be more aggressive than that. Let me just read this, because this is the point in the Bible where we bring up CS Lewis and his discussion of who Jesus was. Check this out. He says I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and has said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of a man who says he is a poached egg, that's interesting, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make the choice Either this man, jesus, was as and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
Speaker 1:So, putting it in front of us today and I think we see this pretty clearly we have to decide who Jesus was, and people were deciding in their own world, the ancient world, who he was. His family were landing on this idea that something was wrong with Jesus. He's kind of lost his mind. Perhaps he's a lunatic. He's a lunatic.
Speaker 1:The religious leaders are at least claiming that Jesus was of the devil, that he was evil, and so we see these two options, but they're really not good options, we'll find really to conclude that Jesus was in fact who he said he was God in flesh, come to save us. That's where we ought to land, but let's jump in and see where they're at today in verse 20. Then the multitude came together again so they could not as much as eat bread. But when his own people, that's Jesus' family, heard about this, they went out to lay hold of him, for they said he is out of his mind. So here we see Jesus' family, and the first thing you can see here is that Jesus did have a family. Right, we know Mary, his mother, but he also had brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:We read later in Mark 6, 3, that he had sisters.
Speaker 1:So the whole family dynamic of Jesus growing up, picture that To them he's big brother. They haven't read all these different stories that we know from the gospel account. They just know him as part of the family. And here he is teaching some pretty intense things. He's doing some pretty intense miracles and people are following him to the point where he can't even be in a house because it's packed out. He can't even take time to eat bread because people are coming to him and the family realizes that things are falling apart. They know how the religious leaders feel about Jesus. We've read that the religious leaders went to the Herodians to find a way to destroy Jesus. They want to kill him. They're going to accuse him of blasphemy and it won't be the first time, I'm sure here and it was something that his family knew could get Jesus killed right Blasphemy something that the people would spontaneously pick up stones and throw them at you to kill you. So his family sees him and they go. Things are snowballing here.
Speaker 1:People want to kill you, jesus, and they determine he is probably out of his mind Now that sounds pretty cruel to say about your family out of their mind but in this case they might have been trying to save his life honestly, because that was one of the few things insanity was one of the few things that could get you out of getting killed in this situation. Well, he's just crazy, crazy guy saying that he's God in the flesh. Crazy guy, please don't kill him in the flesh. Crazy guy, please don't kill him. And so perhaps his family is well-meaning and they're trying to save his life, maybe, but you couldn't really say that he was crazy. He was very determined to say the things that he did. The works that he did. They proved that what he was saying was really true. And yet they had to deal with that. Now we see they're not the worst of the crowd here In verse 22,. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said well, he has Baal's above and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons. So here we see the scribes right, they're the Bible scholars of the day. They know the word backwards and forward. They explain the Bible. They would be teaching the Bible studies. They explain the Bible. They would be teaching the Bible studies.
Speaker 1:Parallel account in Matthew, chapter 12, says the Pharisees were also here at this point. Jesus has just cast a demon. Once again, in Luke and Matthew we read he's just cast a demon out that had a guide, blind and mute. So that's what's happened right before this Cast a demon out. Everybody's in awe. The man who wasn't able to speak is able to speak. He wasn't able to see, he's able to see.
Speaker 1:And here the scribes and the Pharisees we read. They have their response. We see here their response is very negative. We find out and we understand that they've kind of had this chip on their shoulder right, jesus doesn't do things their way. He doesn't respect their religious observance of fasting. Remember they came and asked well, how come our disciples and John's disciples fast? But you and your disciples don't. Isn't it worth anything what we do? We fast? Jesus didn't respect that in the way that they had hoped. He didn't respect their traditions of the Sabbath.
Speaker 1:You'll remember their healing on the Sabbath made them very mad because their tradition said healing shouldn't be done on the Sabbath. It's work. You're breaking our traditions Now. It wasn't what the Bible said. The Bible didn't have any law against healing people on the Sabbath, but their tradition said that, their authority said that and Jesus didn't respect that, and so they wanted to kill him. It was their motivation. But here we see their response. It's their words. Notice, as Jesus just cast out a demon. They come down from Jerusalem and they say he has Beelzebub by the ruler of the demons. He casts out demons. So Beelzebub not just the lyric from a Queen song, right? Beelzebub was an idol, a god from a place called Ekron, and he was known as the Lord of the Flies another work of literature. Lord of the.
Speaker 1:Flies, the dung god, if you can imagine that. A god who was Lord of the Flies there, the dung god, the ruler of the demons. They say. Now you can kind of hear their mocking in this. Right, as Jesus is being followed by many people, the religious elite say, oh, he's just, he's doing this through the dumb God, because we know there's a lot of dumb going on here. Right, and you can see that they're being disrespectful, they're being harsh, and it's just their words. They're saying this that he casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. Right, and you can almost sense their laughing here. He's not a good man, he doesn't follow our laws, he's working with Satan's power. That's how he can do all these miraculous things.
Speaker 1:And certainly it's political name-calling, right, it's the kind of stuff we experience a lot in our day and age, right, Just the instinctive. Well, you know, for a convicted felon, not bad. Oh, for a crazy person. You know, I did it. You know they're just responding. Well, he's working by Satan the dumb guy. Right, and their words are not argument but they're mockery, they're trying to shut Jesus down.
Speaker 1:Now check it out.
Speaker 1:We find that this is a dangerous thing to do. What's going on in their heart? Dangerous thing to do. But Jesus in verse 23, takes the time to explain a few things to them, to warn them. Now check it out. That is amazingly graceful of him, isn't it, as these religious leaders just want to trap Jesus, they want to mock Jesus. Jesus takes the time to explain where they've gone wrong. That's a lot of compassion that Jesus would have for these guys. Notice what he says. So he called them to himself and said to them in parables I'm going to tell you a story. How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
Speaker 1:If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but has his end. So here Jesus explains some logic to them. Look, you're saying that I'm casting out demons by the prince of demons, that Satan is casting out Satan. You don't make any sense. He says look at it logically. Nobody fighting a war is going to attack themselves like that. You know. Nobody, you know, in a wrestling match is going to go bang their head against the wall. You know what I mean Knock yourself out. Why would you do that? Why would Satan try to fight himself? It's like split personalities going on here. Jesus says that's just crazy. Satan's not dumb, right, his tactics are not silly. He would not attack himself. What you're saying doesn't make any sense. But notice some great application here. Notice verse 27. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house.
Speaker 1:So Jesus paints another picture for them a strong man, you know, picture Arnold Schwarzenegger type you know big muscly guy and he says if you wanted to rob that guy, you would have to be stronger than him. That's kind of the point here. He says so look at it, if I am essentially robbing Satan of his captives, that's kind of what he's saying here that Satan holds people captive captive to so many things, you know, captive to drugs, captive to lust, belongings, captive to just the desire to simply be accepted. It just rules our life. We can be captive to anything, right, and the devil is so good at holding us captive, hostage, and we're paralyzed, we're in chains, you know.
Speaker 1:And Jesus here says look, if Satan's got something that I want, the only way that I can take it from him now think about this the only way that I can take it from him is if I'm stronger than he is. So what's the truth here? Jesus is stronger than the devil. That's the only reason why he's been able to deliver these people who were in bondage to the devil is because I'm stronger than these other demons. And Jesus here is making them think Satan wouldn't attack himself. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:And if I'm going to take something from the devil, I'm going to be stronger than him. Jesus says. And that's the truth. That's a wonderful truth, even at this point in the story, a wonderful truth that Jesus is able and wants to deliver us from our own captivity, is able and wants to deliver us from our own captivity, the things that just hold us down and make life just impossible to live, for God. Jesus came to deliver us from the power of darkness. That's a wonderful truth to hold on to. When we feel trapped by our own sin, jesus is stronger, and I just thought of this beautiful account in Luke, chapter 19. It's Zacchaeus right.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus who this Zacchaeus, not that? Zacchaeus was a wee little man, right, and you remember he was a tax collector. Nobody wanted to be around and he climbed up in the tree to see Jesus. And Jesus, in a sense, delivered Zacchaeus just by showing him love. It was really pretty powerful, right? Jesus made a difference in Zacchaeus' life by coming to his tree and saying Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house for dinner tonight. And that was how the story went. And Zacchaeus was a changed man, right, because Jesus invited himself over for dinner. But check out the difference that happens in Zacchaeus' life. Just listen to this.
Speaker 1:Zacchaeus stood and said to Jesus Look, lord, I give half my goods to the poor and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I'll restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him now, listen to this. It's beautiful. Today, salvation has come to this house because he is also a son of Abraham, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus, talking to Zacchaeus, says this Zacchaeus is the reason why I came, to seek and save the things that are lost. And a stronger man comes in, jesus, and he rescues us when we're trapped. That's what he does. Now Jesus is explaining this to the religious leaders. He's in league with the dumb God. He's the ruler of the demons. He's casting out by the ruler of the demons.
Speaker 1:Jesus sets them straight. But then he gives them a warning. Now look directly at verse 28, because it's a big Bible verse here, verse 28,. He gives them the warning. Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter. So that's good to hold on to to too. All sin can be forgiven. There is not a single sin that can't be forgiven in this world. You know, I look at my life sometimes and instinct is man. But what?
Speaker 1:I did you know where my mind went, how evil I've been. I get that Jesus loves me, but that's pretty bad, right, and we all have those things that we look at and go, yeah, but I don't feel forgiven. But in Jesus all sins can be forgiven, all blasphemies we'll talk about that that they may utter. But and here's where it gets in our face verse 29. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is subject to eternal condemnation. And this is a verse that has kept people up at night and it probably should just a little bit keep people up at night and it probably should just a little bit keep people up at night from time to time. But Jesus here gives a serious warning and he says but there is one sin that will condemn you forever. Eternal condemnation, hell. Right, there is one sin. It's a direct ticket to hell.
Speaker 1:It seems that Jesus is saying here and in this one verse I've seen disturb kids for a long time, kids that you know, quote unquote good kids, right, there is such a thing, right, you know. Good people, all right, same thing. But what if I've committed that one sin? What if I blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? I mean, I've said some pretty bad things. I've taken the Lord's name in vain. Is that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? And it's kept a lot of people up over the years and probably should. And they ask well, am I lost forever? Is there maybe no hope for me? And Jesus here does say whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness. But what is blasphemy, right? We don't use that word. It's kind of a high and lofty word. Blasphemy, right? What is blasphemy? The word there means evil speaking. I've spoken evil before. Is it me, you know? Evil speaking To some degree, taking the Lord's name in vain, that's evil speaking. But it's more than that.
Speaker 1:The religious leaders accused Jesus of blasphemy a couple times, in the very end when he was standing trial. Matthew 26, verse 63,. They say I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. And Jesus said to them it is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you Hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Speaker 1:Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying he has spoken blasphemy. What further need do we have witness? Look, you have heard his blasphemy Right. So Jesus, there, he says I'm the Messiah, he proclaims to be the Messiah, and he says you're going to see me judging the world, you're going to see me coming in power At that. Because they don't believe that's true about Jesus, they tear their clothes and they say blasphemy. You're saying things that aren't right. You're claiming to be somebody that you're not Blasphemy. Another point Jesus in John, chapter 10, verse 30, he says a pretty powerful thing there. He says I and my father are one. Now, not many people have in their right minds have said me and God, we're the same man and Jesus says I and my father are one.
Speaker 1:Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him and Jesus answered them many good works I've shown you from my father. Which of these works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying for a good work. We do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. Jesus, if he wasn't who he said he was, was taking Godhood upon himself, saying I'm the same, me and the father are one. Was taking godhood upon himself saying I'm the same, me and the Father are one. And rightfully, since they didn't believe it, they took up stones to stone him. So we get a picture of blasphemy here.
Speaker 1:But what about Mark, chapter 3? What is this all about? What did they do? Chapter 3, what is this all about? What did they do? Well, the great thing is that verse 30 tells us straight out what was going on. What was the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Verse 30, it was because they said he has an unclean spirit. So we're told here in Mark that the blasphemy that these religious leaders had against Jesus was that they were taking his good works and they were giving credit to the devil. They were saying well, he's not really from God, he's in league with the devil and it wasn't because Jesus' feelings were hurt, but it was because of what it did to their heart. They would never come to Jesus. Now check this out. They would never come to Jesus for salvation because in their minds Jesus was of the devil.
Speaker 1:Why would they come to him? So, never coming to Jesus, they?
Speaker 2:never came to salvation, because there was only salvation in the name of.
Speaker 1:Jesus. So you see that the trajectory of their life was off.
Speaker 1:Trajectory Use this word a couple times today Trajectory right, think about Lela's gonna be getting on a plane in a few hours here and they'll go up and I guess, depending on which runway they go down, they might start off going north. Well, if they just kept going north and never turned another direction, their trajectory was north, the direction they were going, they would end up in Canada, right, probably something like that Michigan, canada, something straight north. They have to turn a little bit. This is obvious. Right, they'll have to start going west because that's where California is west. Well, trajectory, if your trajectory is off just a little bit, you may end up west, but you may end up in Oregon if you're not careful. Right, the trajectory which is really hard to say. Honestly, it makes a huge difference in where we end up and the trajectory last time of these guys, their life was going the absolute wrong direction.
Speaker 1:They were considering Jesus as in league with the devil. They talked themselves into it he's in league with the devil, he's up the aisles above. And they were going the absolute wrong direction. They would never come to salvation. So there's a warning here from Jesus that if you're going the wrong direction, you'll never end up at salvation, and that's true. Someone who never deals with who Jesus is, who never accepts the fact that Jesus, what he did on the cross for us, is the only way to salvation and hope in this world, they'll never come to that salvation. That's a desperate place to be. But what about us? Could we blaspheme the Holy Spirit today and find ourself losing our salvation? If you could lose your salvation, could we lose our salvation? Well, I'll say no, definitely. You can't lose your salvation the way you lose your car keys.
Speaker 1:And I do it all the time right and then we blame each other and it goes around for a while until I realized it was in my other pocket. But you can't lose your salvation like that, in my other pocket. But you can't lose your salvation like that. But there are some interesting things for us to consider very quickly, right before we enjoy lunch. Let's turn to Hebrews, chapter two. This is a turning time. Turn to Hebrews, chapter two.
Speaker 1:Hebrews, chapter two, verse 1. A little bit of deep thoughts before lunch. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. So the Hebrews that are being written to here they had some issues. They were kind of finding their way away from Jesus as the only way they were starting to add traditions back into the mix. They were starting to add some good works and stuff to salvation. And the author here says we got to be careful lest we drift away.
Speaker 1:And this idea of drifting is something that happens to me often, right In my thoughts in life, on the road, right. Here's another one of those things that can start a disagreement between me and my wife. I tend to drift, you know, I'm just inquisitive. I'm always looking around, driving along, thinking, oh, that would be a great photograph of landscape. You know, and I'm driving and, before you know it right, and my wife will lovingly tap me on the back, okay, you know, or something like that. Of course I'm okay, I was here, I was totally here you know, and, and you know, a couple minutes later I'm drifting the other way.
Speaker 1:I'm here, I'm here, I'm fine, you know. But you know, we lose our way sometimes. Right, we lose our concentration. I do that often and you begin to drift and we get distracted. Right, Paul had a friend named Demas, impacted. Right, Paul had a friend named Demas. And we read kind of some simple things about this guy, Demas, in Philippians chapter. Oh, there's only one, not Philippians Philemon, verse 24. We read that Demas is a fellow laborer. We go, ah, Demas, fellow laborer with Paul, that's beautiful. Fellow laborer with Paul, that's beautiful. In Colossians 4, verse 14, Paul ends his letter by saying Demas says hi, by the way, Hi, Demas. But then it all goes kind of out of whack. In 2 Timothy 4.10, Paul writes about his friend Demas. Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. And we look at this little picture into this life of Demas, a fellow laborer. He says hi, and then he's gone. Right, it didn't just happen one day that he woke up and said you know, what I'm sick of this being with Paul thing.
Speaker 1:I'm sick of this ministry thing, I'm sick of this Christianity thing. I'm done. It was gradually over time. He just kind of drifted away until at one point he's forsaken me, having loved this present world. It's hard to see when something like that happens gradually, but we can drift, we know it.
Speaker 1:Let's turn one more place here, chapter 3, hebrews, chapter 3, since we're in Hebrews, right Still there, hebrews, chapter 3, verse 12. Hebrews 3, 12. Hebrews 3, 12. A warning Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is still called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Speaker 1:So another picture here is, along with drifting, is hardening right, and for this I think right away of just any kind of you know trail that you might have ground that gets hard. We'll talk about it probably next time in the parallel of the sower. Ground can be hard right as you walk across the same path, you knock the grass down. Somebody else sees that and they go that same direction. They pack it down a little harder until that path becomes almost as hard as concrete, right Dirt. You can do that, you know, just by walking over a trail for any given amount of time, it becomes hardened, it almost becomes cemented, in a sense. And here's what we're told again in verse 13, that we can have, we can be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So check it out.
Speaker 1:Think of the long-term sin, choosing sin over righteousness. Our hearts become hardened to it and we've all seen that. Right, as you hear God saying to you, what are you doing here? Why are you doing this? And your heart beats a little faster the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you decide you know what, though I'm going to do it, I'm still doing it. I'm going to go this way, and then, over and over again, you visit the same spot. I mean, this is the way it gets when the devil gets a foothold. He'll find it over and over again and, little by little, our hearts get hardened towards it until it's like packed earth, you know, hardened. And we go now, the things I'm doing I don't even want to do, and here I am.
Speaker 1:It doesn't even really bother me anymore. I don't even feel that tug of conviction and it really is that hardening of heart. So we're warned in these kinds of things, the little decisions check it out. It's not just the big decisions that make a difference in our life. It's not just those one moment things where we say you know what I don't believe in God? Well, never mind, it's the daily, lifelong things. I tell often I'll be done here in a second, but I tell often about my first ministry in a convalescent home.
Speaker 1:It has always stuck with me. Convalescent home here, I think they call it maybe an old folks home, I'm not really sure, but you get the picture. And I remember, after a study, asking one guy, old guy, probably in his 90s and I remember asking what about you? You're here, do you believe in Jesus? Have you given your life to him? What's going on? And he says, and he gave me this look, it kind of gave me this look of I'm not ready for that right now and I always thought you're not ready for that. You know you're. You're in a convalescent home.
Speaker 1:You're 90 something years old, you're almost a hundred. What do you got a party going on later. What are you waiting for? But check it out. I venture that for decades that's been his answer. What do you think about Jesus? I'm not ready for that right now.
Speaker 1:And the constant, repetitive thing of just saying no, it became who he was Now. All this put together, this, I think, is the danger. This is the danger of where the religious leaders were at oh, that's the devil. Oh, that miracle, that's the devil. Oh, no, beelzebub. Right over there, and over and over again, they rejected what God was doing in their heart, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, of sin and righteousness and judgment to come, and they said no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Until, at one point, it was just who they were. Now, the cool thing is, until you're gone, as long as you have breath, there's always a chance for a new beginning. Until you die, there's a chance to change, and it's surprising when that happens. But here's the danger that I think we're being warned about Don't harden your heart, don't drift away. But here's the danger that I think we're being warned about Don't harden your heart, don't drift away, don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit when he comes to us and says hey, that thing that you're doing not okay. You know, you weren't made for that.
Speaker 1:You know it doesn't glorify God and you find yourself in a place where you just kind of look around all at once and you say how in the world did I get here? Not where I wanted to be. Maybe If you feel that you're in a good spot, right, well, as long as there's breath, there's an opportunity to change. There's an opportunity to turn from our sin and turn to God. There's an opportunity to turn from our sin and turn to God. There's an opportunity to turn away from our own righteousness and turn to his righteousness. And God is so, so good to warn us, just like he did with these religious leaders. Honestly, if I were Jesus, a long time ago I would have said you know what, go where you're going. You know, you just don't worry about it. And yet he says beware, don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, don't harden your hearts. And he's always so good to us to do the same. As we look around and we just go. You know where am I at? Have I hardened my heart just a little bit? God, softened my heart? Have I drifted off course just a little bit? God, get me going the right direction. Am I hardening my heart to what your spirit is saying, god? I want to hear what your spirit is saying.
Speaker 1:God, help me today. So, god, thank you for these good warnings and God, thank you for loving us so much that you came to seek and save the lost. We're all lost in our own way. God, thank you for loving us. I just pray that we take these words personally today. Whatever point we're at in life whether it's just a little bit of drift, or we're wondering where in the point we're at in life, whether it's just a little bit of drift or we're wondering where in the world we're at God that we would just make that turn by your grace and turn back to you. God, thank you that that's what you want, that those that come to you would by no means turn away. God, work these things in our lives, even today. Thank you for being so good to us. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.