Blessed Sunday to you all! When I was a little girl Sunday meant Sunday School and worship, lunch at home or at my mamo’s house and the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday or the basket ball game or the baseball game (whatever sport my Daddy seasonally watched) and then as a teenager, youth group on Sunday evening. And believe it or not it was a day of rest and worship. Not anymore! Today was worship, lunch at Steak and Shake, Academy for the kids because they both needed new tennis shoes, a Happening Staff meeting, elliptical at the gym (two days in a row!), Travis is at work, Bruce doing the laundry and then taking it to the Laundromat because our dryer is out, lesson plans for me, cleaning the kitchen and finally the journal. Not a day of rest any more!!!

Mark 1: 29-39 vs. 35; Early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus woke and left the house. He went to a lonely place where He prayed.”

This verse comes from the passage about Jesus healing the mother-in-law of Simon Peter. This is an amazing story about a woman who was in bed with a fever. She had a house to run and people to feed and she was in bed sick with fever. Back in the time this was written there was no Tylenol at the local Walgreens (nor was there a local Walgreens) with which to combat this fever. So she must have really been sick. Of course at the time of this writing a fever could possibly mean death. So Jesus went to her house, went over to her bed, held her hand, helped her up, the fever left her and she immediately began her normal routine of serving the people in her house. What an amazing woman of faith and what an amazing Savior she had! Then the word got out that Jesus was healing at the home of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and the crowds flocked to her home to receive healing from all kinds of sicknesses. Now all of this happened on the Sabbath Day because it says the followers of Jesus left the synagogue. Not a day of rest for Jesus either!

But the next verse tells a lot about Jesus. He went early in the morning to a lonely, quiet, possibly secluded place to pray. He went to a place where there were no crowds, no demands made on Him, no lesson plans to write, or checkbooks to balance, no meetings to attend or sermons to preach. He went just to talk to His Father. Even Jesus, the Son of God, wanted a more intimate relationship with God, the Father. Jesus gave God the beginning of His day before He went about the tasks of loving, caring, healing, preaching and casting out demons. Jesus models for us once again that God desires a more intimate relationship with each of us. We become more intimate with God through prayer. Prayer is a conversation with God. We speak to God and then we need to be quiet and allow God to speak to us.

We are much like the disciples in the next verse. The disciples awake and cannot find Jesus. Simon Peter and his friends went to look for Him and when they found Him they said, “Everyone is looking for you!” They were not very patient or gracious when they found Jesus and began to immediately make demands of Him. The work of the day was about to begin for Jesus. Now I think Jesus was most likely in constant contact with the Father, but I also believe that Jesus treasured the quiet moments He spent with His Father.

Can we take a lesson from our Savior? Can we spend a few quiet moments each day with no distractions and just be with Jesus and our heavenly Father? Make time in your day for some quiet, uninterrupted moments with Jesus. He loves us so much and wants to spend one-on-one time with each of us.

Well, my time is just about up as my wonderful Basset Hound, Lamar has come to visit and is in need of a scritch.

Take joy in the journey my friends. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis and tonight, Lamar.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

PS The Happening weekend is March 13-15 at Advent Lutheran church. Applications for 15-18 year olds need to be in by February 28. You can download an application from the NTNL.ORG website. Let me know if you need any assistance at all.