First things
Day 299, Friday, June 6
Mark 12:18 – Chapter 13
In Mark’s account of the question of the greatest commandment, it is a teacher of the law who asks the question. Jesus responds by saying the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.
In this telling, though, the questioner not only understands what Jesus is saying, but takes it a step further.
“You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him,” he says. “To love him with all your heart, with all your understandings and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
He put together the logical consequence of loving God and neighbor being the first things: things that had been at the forefront are now reduced in importance.

Friday meditation

Proverbs 29:25-27
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that one gets justice.
The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.

Prayer focus
God, let me love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

-Rev. Mark Fleming