“Let’s read Mark 11:23 in the Modern English Version. ‘For truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.’ How many times did we read the word ‘believes’? Once. How many times did we read the word ‘says’? Three times. …Be careful what you say.” Pastor Monte Knudsen, 1-2-19

In Matthew 8, the captain’s servant was sick. He believed Jesus could heal him. He said to Jesus, ‘Just give the order.’

Matthew 8:13, “Then Jesus turned to the captain and said, ‘Go. What you believed could happen has happened.’ At that moment his servant became well.” The Message

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Last night we attended a cousin’s funeral. While talking with aunts and uncles another relative joined us.

She said, “You should read Pam’s Bible posts. They’re really good. She uses the messenger Bible.” (I think she meant The Message.)

Two of our uncles are preachers. I thought I would get chided for not using the King James Bible. I told them, “I grew up on Bible schools reading the King James Version. I didn’t understand it. I don’t speak Elizabethan English. I read the modern versions so I can understand what I’m reading.”

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Funerals today are much different from in Bible times. We remembered good things and there was a lot of laughter.

Matthew 8:21-22, “Another follower said, ‘Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father’s funeral to take care of.’ (22) Jesus refused. ‘First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life!’ ” The Message

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“…No son whose father had just died would be talking with Jesus in public before the father’s body had been laid in a tomb. …Even today in the Middle East, the expression ‘Wait until I bury my father’ expresses a desire to wait until the father has died before embarking too far from home. …Jewish people in the 1st century let the flesh rot off of a corpse’s bones for a year, then returned to the tomb and gathered the bones into a box which they deposited into a slot in the tomb wall. If the disciple was referring to such a reburial, known as ‘secondary’ burial, then he was asking for as much as a year’s delay in following Jesus. …” Chronological Study Bible Notes

Your business is life! Pursue life! What are you believing for?

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