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We soon got over our fears and realized how blessed we were to get off the highway unharmed and be in a safe, warm motel room. Our only problem now was getting back to Provo. Each of us dialed home collect, expecting that our parents would wire money for bus tickets or a rental car. We were surprised when each set of parents immediately offered to drive to Elko and get us. I turned the corner by the row of townhomes, a cluster of housing units, four all scrunched together under one roof.
And yet still, Jesus stands with us and for us. Jesus used that fig tree as a sign for us. It's the only time in the Gospel of Mark recorded that Jesus uses His power for destructive purposes, the only time.
Bring Us Home
They let the old stone walls stay, but they coated them, so to speak, with a thin veneer of religious observance and contemporary cultural values, hung in place like cheap vinyl siding. In truth, they had flat out abandoned the Lord, their God. They broke His heart and held on to idols instead—cheap, pre-fabricated gods of their own making. And so God one day said, "This house that I have set apart for My Name, I will cast it out of My sight, and this house will become a heap of ruins." Even for the closest set of parents, this meant a three-hour drive to Elko and a four-hour drive back to Provo.
We didn’t think twice about the signs until four days later on our way back to Provo. It was then that our car suddenly stopped precisely 10 yards north of one of those ominous blue signs. The real picture comes up when Jesus gives the first Passion prediction and resurrection prediction.
With the Lord There Is Mercy
It meant disrupting work schedules and finding baby-sitters for the other children. Eventually we decided that it would be best for Jenni’s mom and grandpa to drive down to get us. Relieved, we went to bed and expected to see Jenni’s mom by noon the next day. They're not false, but it's not the revelation of the heart of God. You want to see God for who He truly is. You must listen to the Passion prediction and resurrection prediction, and you must see Him at the cross, giving His life as an atonement for many.
A young officer piled us into his car, called a tow truck, and dropped us off at a motel in Elko. About 15 miles north of Elko, Nevada, is a stretch of highway dotted with signs warning motorists not to pick up hitchhikers because of a prison facility nearby. To four college students traveling from Provo, Utah, to San Francisco, these signs were a bit unsettling. My roommates and I were certainly glad to cruise by them on our way to California’s Bay Area for Thanksgiving weekend.
"A Place to Belong"
Roughly 500 years later, long after Solomon was dead, God sent a foreign army to invade and reduce that house to a heap of ruins. But the loss of the structure never stopped God's plan. In fact, losing the structure would become a part of the fulfillment of that plan. It was a plan revealed even from the very beginning of the Jewish Scriptures. God, the Creator, had always intended to dwell in and with and for His creation. God would never be an absentee landlord.
They knew and you know that whatever your physical address happens to be in this present passing age, wherever Jesus is with His people, that's where you belong. And some of those who were standing there said to them, "What are you doing, trying to lose the colt?" And they told them just as Jesus had said, and they permitted them to do so. And they bring the colt to Jesus, and they put their clothing on it.
Top Songs By Same Actors
He was an early follower of the Jewish Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth. Mark wrote an account of Jesus' visit to the temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Solomon's temple by then had been rebuilt, but things weren't really the same. Mark wrote down his account because he believed, as I believe, that this Jesus is the promised Messiah whom God raised from the dead. And I am speaking to you this day because I believe as Mark believed that in Jesus, we found a place to belong.
We asked you for your good luck messages to the Toon ahead of thethe Toon ahead of the new season starting today. Here are just a few of those we received...
The words of the prophets speak with great expectation for that day. They said that the presence of God's Messiah would be the beginning of a new age. The blind would see; the deaf would hear; the lame would run. There'd be streams in the desert, green grass in the wasteland, and fig trees brimming with fruit, in season and out of season.
He wanted to show them, and He wants to show you that without Him, home will always be out of reach. And we only make matters worse by clinging to the world's promises for security. And that's why the temple building in Jerusalem had come under God's judgment. The building, the structure had become their God. And so God, to save His people, would destroy His house again. He cast that house out of their sight to help them and to help us more clearly see the home that we have in Jesus.
In God's plan, heaven and earth were made to be married together, cohabitating together forever. Have you ever been back to visit an old childhood home? And I suppose it works either way, how being in that place brings you back.
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