Mark 9:14-19,28-29

Unlike the father of the boy with the tormenting spirit, we don’t confess our unbelief and then ask for help in believing more is possible. Phil Ware continues his series of posts from the discipleship section of Mark chapters 8-10, this time focusing on the boy the disciples of Jesus could not heal.

""What is all this arguing about?" Jesus asked. One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, "Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He....."

"When [Jesus, Peter, James, and John] returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were..."

"Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, "Why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit?" Jesus replied, "This....."

"[A man in the crowd said to Jesus,] "... I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn't do it." Jesus said to them, "You..."

"Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, "Why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit?""

"Despairingly the poor disappointed father turned away from the disciples to their Master. His son was in the worst possible condition, and all means....."

"How great the difference between Moses and Jesus! When the prophet of Horeb had been forty days upon the mountain, he underwent a kind of..."

"When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of....."

Dear God in heaven, we’d sure like to have a little bit of power to alter our irrelevance, lighten the burdens of others, and heal the wounds of the broken and despairing. Phil Ware writes out of the context of recent disasters and the loss of a mother and child to remind us that being a servant, offering ourselves in sacrificial love, is never a waste!

Let's pray for our leaders! Bob Sjogren reminds us the importance of fasting and praying for the president.