{"id":555,"date":"2017-08-12T00:23:44","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T00:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/?p=555"},"modified":"2017-08-12T00:23:44","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T00:23:44","slug":"mark-334-35-no-arm-twisting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Mark 3:34-35  &#8211;  \u201cNo Arm-Twisting\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Absorbing God&#8217;s Word<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said,\u00a0\u201cHere are my mother and my brothers!\u00a0Whoever does God\u2019s will is my brother and sister and mother.\u201d Mark 3:34-35<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Applying God&#8217;s Word<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Was Jesus being disrespectful to His own family in the scripture above? I don\u2019t think so. I believe He was simply distinguishing the difference between believers and non-believers.<\/p>\n<p>When I decided to get to know Jesus intimately, my friendships with folks who were also seeking more intimacy with Jesus grew. Interestingly, my relationships with non-believers grew as well.<\/p>\n<p>Many non-believers I associate with have varying opinions about faith, life, death, and God. Jesus does not force us to follow Him. Therefore, He does not expect us to force others either.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight, my wife and I are going to dinner with friends who are not followers of Christ. They know about our love for Jesus. Will God use tonight as an opportunity to draw them closer to His heart? Maybe and maybe not.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Accounting of God&#8217;s Word<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Do I see myself seated in that circle around Jesus? Does He call me His brother or sister? Is my life a reflection of Jesus life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Absorbing God&#8217;s Word\u00a0 \u201cThen he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said,\u00a0\u201cHere are my mother and my brothers!\u00a0Whoever does God\u2019s will is my brother and sister and mother.\u201d Mark 3:34-35\u00a0 Applying God&#8217;s Word\u00a0 Was Jesus being &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/?p=555\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}