14B24.    Ezekiel 2:2-5.   The Lord spoke to his newly appointed prophet Ezekiel of the Israelites: “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.”  Nonetheless, the Lord continued: “They shall know that a prophet has been among them.”

Mark 6:1-6a.  Jesus returned to Nazareth where he grew us and lived until he left to begin his ministry.  After having left on his ministry on his return to his hometown, he appeared to the local people to have changed radically and no longer seemed to be the same person they grew up with.  The gospel passage says, “And they took offense at him,” which I think means that they refused to accept Jesus in his new role as Messiah.  As a result, Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed there,” since the objective of his miracles was develop their faith in him.  They refused to put any faith in him.  Jesus said in John 10:38, “If I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” We are given the number of years we live on this earth as an opportunity to deepen and mature our faith and life in Jesus as our Savior.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10.  Paul wrote, “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  For God to be the God of the lives that we live daily, we must live out of his dwelling within us, as the one who enables us to do the good we do.  It is only out of his resources and not our own that we are the people we ought to be.  Jesus said in John 15:5b, “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”