Good morning. Mark starts out almost right away with John being taken into custody. Other Gospels tell of things happening before that. Then Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of God. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. As we have said before about other things – it was the right time for this to happen. Jesus sees Peter and his brother fishing, and tells them to follow Him, and He will make them become fishers of men. He then sees James and John. He goes into a synagogue, and begins to teach. People were amazed because He was teaching as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The scribes were only giving their opinions or the opinions of people before them. Jesus was giving them the truth about the word of God. There was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, and the spirit cried out “what business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!” Jesus told him to be quiet and come out of the man. Jesus was not ready to proclaim who He really was; besides, He did not want that revelation to come from a demon. The people were amazed that Jesus commanded even the unclean spirits, and they obeyed Him. Of course later we will see that the Pharisees said He did that by the power of the ruler of the demons. It sounds a lot like today where no matter what someone says or does, there are plenty of people who criticize what is said or done. Father thank You that Jesus had authority over the demons, and that You gave us that authority too. Help the reader to get everything done that needs to be done. Give him/her the strength and wisdom that he/she needs!

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