My 2-Year Journey with Mark

For the last two years, I have spent a lot of time with Mark. He’s a man of few words, but two years with him, and I’ve only scratched the surface.

When some see sheer glory, they are stunned speechless. Others rattle on for pages. Not Mark. He writes with words profoundly succinct to tell of things just unimaginable.

And until you’ve spent two years drinking up his little journal . . . all I can say is, you are missing out.

Two years ago, my pastor began a sermon series on the Book of Mark. I was curious to see what it would be like to develop an ongoing organic Bible study to coincide with the sermon passages. So I gathered up a few ladies from my church, and we set out to study the book of Mark over a one-year period. One year. Because that’s how long my pastor was going to preach from the Book of Mark. Or so we thought.

Needless to say, one year turned into two. And it was a blast.

I give you the details to say, “It can be done.” And I tell you how amazing it was so you will go and do likewise.

Here are a few treasures from this two-year journey . . .

Jesus. I think I can honestly say I learned more about Jesus in Mark than I ever have anywhere else. It sounds cute, but it’s not. It’s amazing. I noticed, as if for the first time, what Jesus said and what he didn’t say. What he did and what he didn’t do. How he loved. Oh how he loved. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, I really felt like I met Jesus the Man for the first time in my journey with Mark.

Mark. The person and Gospel of Mark came alive to me apart from the others. With a method of soaking in Mark alone and finally tagging the other Gospels onto the end of my study, I came to know the heart and mind of the scribe named Mark. This is when I understood a man of 16 chapters to be a man of few words, because all the other guys said so much more! Mark was a creature all his own. I entered his world of “immediately’s,” wondered at his energy, and sometimes had a few conversations with him . . .”Why did you say it that way?” “Why did you skip that part?” “Why did you leave the naked man unnamed?” It ended up being a one-sided conversation, but it was worth it, because I saw Mark as a person. A distinct person giving a distinct perspective on a distinct God.

People. All the people who entered this story of glory. John the Baptist. The Twelve. {And it wasn’t “The Twelve;” I had to sit down for coffee with twelve very different individuals. And some were stru-ggle-ing.} The demons. The crowd. The paralytic. The Pharisees and Sadducees. Chief priests, scribes, elders, council. Jesus’ family. Jesus’ other Family. The demon-possessed man. The ruler and his daughter. The woman with the issue of blood. King Herod. The man with the speech impediment. The blind man. The woman with the alabaster flask. Bartimaeus. Barabbas. Pilate. Joseph of Arimathea. The women at the tomb. And more. Of each and every person a biography could be written that would bring you to your knees.

The Word. This Book stands above the dozen or so other Books in the Bible I’ve studied in this manner up to this point. In Mark, I learned even more of the joy of studying the Word. You can dig into a few of my discoveries by scanning through these posts {or just scroll on by}:

6:14-29 – Beauty & The Banquet
6:14-29 – Thoughts from a Prison Cell
7:1-23 – But I Want to Be a Pharisee
7:16 – When a Verse Goes Missing
9:14-29 – 3 Reasons Faith-Healing Fails
10:17-31 – Why Jesus Tells Us to Sell All Our Stuff
10:21 – Sell All That You Have and Build Bigger Church Buildings
10:28-30 – Father Included
10:46-52 – When I Was a Blind Beggar
12:17 – The Other Side of the Coin
12:24 – Why We Get Things Wrong
14:3-9 – Two Women and Their Essential Oils
15:32 – When Believing Has Nothing To Do With Seeing
16:2 – When the Sun Had Risen
Various Chapters – Before You Ask the Other Guys
Various Chapters – Don’t Tell Anyone
Various Chapters – One Out of Twelve
Various Chapters – Q & A Session with Jesus
Various Chapters – So Close and Yet So Far
Various Chapters – Who Are We?
Various Chapters – Who Really Killed Jesus?

Fellow Travelers. Studying the Word with others is by far my favorite study method. I gathered up a group of busy women, most of whom are young mothers with realms of responsibility I’ve never experienced. And their enthusiasm for this study was unreal. These women accepted me and my crazy Scripture-study ideas and made our study a million times better than what it would have been on its own. They were patient with me, and they taught me and encouraged me, and every minute was a true joy. I rejoiced to grow in the Word with them.

A Guide. Studying the Word along with my pastor’s sermons is by far my other favorite study method. Our little group would gather and wrestle with a passage, then show up at church almost giddy with anticipation. And every week, the sermon was real and overflowing and mind-blowing . . . because we had already talked to Mark, and our pastor had, too, and it was just too much fun to compare notes.

A Journal. So my 30 pages of markable Mark became a treasure of a journal like none else. My questions, my discoveries, my dear friends’ hearts, my pastor’s wisdom, a few colors and drawings. It’s all there. And I want to share it with you today so you can take a peek. Click the buttons below to see the pages, click the image to take a closer look, and click again to zoom and see all the fun.