John the Baptist provides an example of appropriate humility before the Lord.  John had a great ministry compared with other men but he knew that he was only to be an arrow pointing to Jesus, the Messiah.  Likewise, no matter how great we think we are compared to other men, we are nothing in comparison to Jesus.  We have nothing of eternal value to offer.  We are filthy sinners.  He is perfect.  Like John the Baptist, we are to point people to him.  He must increase.  We must decrease.

Mark describes four components of Jesus initial public message: 1) The time is fulfilled, 2) the kingdom of God is at hand, 3) repent and 4) believe the gospel.  Seeing the kingdom of God as the treasure that it is evokes repentance as we see that it is better than anything else we could pursue.  The gospel gives us the promise that we can enter the kingdom of heaven as the adopted sons of God because of the shed blood of Jesus.

After Jesus's baptist, he was led into the wilderness and tempted.  The temptation was real for Jesus just as it is real for us.  Faith is the confidence that there is something better than the thing you are tempted by.  Do we trust that God's way is best?  If the answer is "I do but . . ", we are really saying I don't.

Jesus' interactions with the religious leaders in the temple at age 12 set him apart from typical children in the eyes of his mother and father.  His first recorded words point out that he has two families - one earthly and one heavenly.  Every believer has been adopted into the heavenly family so we also have two families which can create conflicts of interest.  Jesus provides an example of how to walk through those challenges.

Death is a certainty for all of us but we procrastinate on preparing for it, avoiding the subject, because of our fear of it.  Jesus wrote the check to pay the penalty for our sin and his resurrection is our assurance that the check cleared.  Do you believe?  If you truly believe, it will give you hope and boldness now.

Wake cover the Christmas story of luke 2. He show how in both the Christmas story and and Palm Sunday the jew missed Jesus because of their expectation. Then told us not to let our expectation cause us to miss God plan for us.

After 400 years of silence, God spoke again in significant ways, most significantly through coming to earth himself as the Word made flesh so that people could really see what he is like.  The responses of Zechariah and Mary to angel visits provide insights into how God works through people and how we should respond to God's call.

Malachi addressed a nation that was going through the motions of worshiping God but their heart was not fully in it.  God would prefer that people be either fully cold or fully hot rather than lukewarm, deceiving themselves.

The returned exiles listen attentively to the reading of God's word and are cut to the quick.  As they weep over their sin, Nehemiah and Ezra tell them that it is a day for rejoicing and send them out to celebrate.  God's word is a gift to us.  It reveals God and it exposes our sin leading to repentance.  When we repent, all of heaven rejoices because our sin is already paid for by Jesus and our repentance opens us to receive God's gift.

In Esther, we get a rare glimpse of God's work to weave the affairs of sinful men into a beautiful, intricate tapestry to accomplish his purposes.  The plans of men and of Satan appear to threaten God's purposes but, at seemingly the last minute, God catches them in their own trap.  Isaiah 54 tells us that "no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed" and it also tells us why - because we are loved by our Maker, the Lord of hosts, our redeemer, the God of the whole earth.