Mark

Are You Exhausted?

March 9, 2026 by Tim Sherfy

Are you exhausted? Everything about our modern culture seems to drive us to unattainable goals at unsustainable speeds. The 24/7 news cycle, social media, job and familial expectations, all keep us hurtling through time with little chance of stopping to figure out where it is we’re going. Today, exhaustion is both normal and a badge of honor. If you aren’t exhausted, you must be doing something wrong or missing out.

Of course, exhaustion is nothing new. Jesus was so worn out from doing the work of His Father that He was sleeping through a terrifying storm while reclining in a boat. (Mark 4:37–38) The disciples were so tired they couldn’t stay awake to pray with Jesus just hours before His execution. (Matthew 26:40–43) There are legitimate reasons for exhaustion, and then there is the inexcusable cause of indifference.

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Deny Yourself

October 16, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

Jesus said if anyone wants to follow Him, they must first deny themselves (Luke 9:23). What does it mean to deny yourself? It means you must deny your ego. You have been bought for a price, and your life no longer belongs to you (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). You are a slave of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:22). How could you, a slave, think more highly of yourself than anyone else (Philippians 2:3-5)?

Young man contemplating what it means to deny yourself as he seeks the discipline to surrender his priorities and live with a commitment to discipleship without fear

You don’t have the right to make your own decisions, as every choice must now align with God’s will and His Word. As slaves of Christ, we are the lowest of the low, deserving of nothing, and any good that comes our way is only by the incredible grace of our Lord and King (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are nothing, but that’s okay, because He is everything!

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Bad Fruit

October 13, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

The Bible uses the analogy of good and bad fruit to distinguish between what believers and nonbelievers will produce in their lives (Matthew 7:17-20). Genuine followers of Christ will produce good fruit (John 15:8). Jesus says if we abide in Him, we will produce fruit that is growing and desirable (John 15:4-5), as we cannot produce any other kind.

a crowd with raised hands at an event espousing a false gospel and generating bad fruit showing a lack of discipline and discernment for those in attendance which belies their discipleship

But for those not in Him, Jesus likens them to bad trees that can only produce bad fruit (Matthew 7:18). A bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit every now and again; it produces bad fruit every time. Sure, it might look appealing on the outside, but inside it is rotten and sour. If we consume enough of it, what do you imagine will become of our spiritual health?

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Busy, Distracted, and Noisy

August 14, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

Our lives are busy, distracted, and noisy. As long as this is the case, we will never experience what God intends for our lives to be. We will never experience what it is to be close to Him. To come to the full knowledge of God, our lives must revolve around nothing other than Him (Matthew 6:33). It is no small blessing that nothing on earth compares to the glory and majesty of Jesus because that means we can set our affections on the One more valuable and magnificent than any other (Colossians 3:1–2)!

Man drinking coffee, signing papers, and talking on the phone all at the same time because his life is busy, distracted, and noisy

If only we lived as if we believed this were true. Instead, we fill our minds with indecency, our ears with heresy, and our lives with irrelevancy (Philippians 4:8; 2 Timothy 4:3–4). We can not conceive of how much better our lives would be if we eschewed the fallen things of this world and lived lives devoted to the Savior of our souls.

He Is Able to Fill All Our Needs

July 3, 2025 by Tim Sherfy

The gospels of Matthew and Mark both record two separate instances of Jesus feeding multitudes of people. Some skeptics like to argue these were retellings of the same miracle, but the setting and details of each are so different that their argument is without merit and not worthy of further discussion. It is no surprise Jesus performed a similar miracle more than once, because He often repeated miracles such as restoring sight to the blind (Matthew 9:27-30; Mark 8:22-25),

faith,salvation,provision,bread of life,He is able to fill all our needs

cleansing lepers (Luke 17:12-14; Matthew 8:2-3), healing the paralyzed (Matthew 9:1-7; John 5:5-9), and even raising the dead (Luke 7:11-15; John 11:43-44). We are confident in God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:16), and thus we can be confident that Jesus fed vast multitudes at least twice during His ministry. Then, as now, Jesus wants us to see that no matter how impossible the challenge, He is able to fill all our needs.