Magnify Jesus
"On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
Mark 11:15-18
For me and my personal experience, magnifying Jesus and his life started within the scripture. I had to get a good understanding of what he did on this Earth before I could really dive into the what and the why behind his actions. This led me to gaining a love for reading closely in scripture rather than reading in quantity so that I could better understand rather than just knowing the events.
This led me to really enjoying the young adults class where we took the book of John and went through each verse and talked about the why. In doing so, we were able to see how each person interpreted the passages in different ways which was not something that I had gotten to do in such a group and dive so deep to see everyone else’s interpretation and how it was different than the way I read it.
Stories like Jesus at the temple where I had heard that story so many times that I had simply accepted the story for its face value. This is something that we do all too often in saying that we know and understand a story that we have been taught our entire life, however I think that the stories change with us. The way that even the simplest biblical stories can follow you through life helping to make each day clearer is something that I experienced through digging into the scripture.
I really love the way that Jesus will say something that has so much meaning behind the physical words, which is something that really presented itself in the beginning and throughout this journey of close reading, and it really give so much more depth to the stories, events, and time that you spend reading the bible. I really encourage everyone to take even the simplest of stories that we all know and love and to look at them through a different lens. Look at the scripture in a way that allows it to work through you and your current situation and how it applies to you.
Daily Reading: Magnify Jesus
Ephesians 2:10