The simple way to please God
Mark 3:1-6 Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. 2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched Him closely. If He healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse Him of working on the Sabbath.3 Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, "Come and stand in front of everyone." 4 Then He turned to His critics and asked, "Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" But they wouldn't answer Him.
5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then He said to the man, "Hold out your hand." So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! 6 At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
They just didn't get it, over and over Jesus told the religious leaders how wrong they were, they just wouldn't listen. Occasionally in the scriptures we get a glimpse of Jesus humanity and we can see that he had to deal with his emotions.
He told them that all of the law and the prophets could be summed up with just two simple commands:
Mark 12:30-31 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' 31 The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."
It all seems so straight forward to us, how simple is that, but I know that we are just as bad as they were, Jesus is looking at me and he isn't happy all of the time. This man has been dealing with a physical handicap, the handicap didn't get treated as well as they do in our society, he probably cannot get a job, but all the Pharisees were interested in was for Jesus to fall in line with their rules.
I need to remember that every day is a good day for good deeds, if I love my Savior and my neighbor then it will be easy to do good deeds and please God.
Romans 7:4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.
I pray that you will be pleased with the way that I live Lord. I want to love you more and do good to others so that they can see the love and forgiveness that they need and they are looking for.
