Bible

This follows on from my previous post: The Gerasene Demoniac: Prior Context.

The story of the Gerasene demoniac is followed by the integrated accounts of the raising of Jairus's daughter to life, and the healing and cleansing of the woman with a long-standing haemorrhage. These two accounts appear to be unrelated to each other, although the fact that Mark has interwoven them tells us that he sees a connection. Mark always weaves stories together for a reason.

Mark 4:10-12 falls between the telling of the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9) and its explanation (Mark 4:13-20).

In these verses, Jesus explains why he used parables to teach. Parables act as a filter, because the amount gleaned varies according to whether the hearer wishes to put the teaching into practice or not. Merely listened to with disinterest, they will remain at arms length; however, the person who wishes to live out what Jesus teaches will understand them enough to do so.

Anyone wanting to learn how Anglican Chant works as a musical style for the Psalms could look at a couple of introductory webpages.

There is a helpful one on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A15716595.

There is a helpful one on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_chant, where I particularly like the example given - with a colour-coded musical stave that can be matched up to the text of part of the Magnificat printed in the same colours. Nice.

They are not uncommon metaphors in the Psalms, but one after the other they offer a wonderful barrage of imagery portraying the security, shelter, help and support that God's people can find in their God. This was the shelter that Jesus availed himself of, first and foremost, and by extension is available to all who are in Christ.