I Am Close To The Edge

This powerful message takes us into the heart of Mark chapter 5, where we encounter a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years - a woman living on the edge of society, hope, and survival. Throughout Mark's Gospel, we see Jesus consistently reaching those pushed to the margins: lepers outside the city, the paralyzed man lowered through a roof, the demoniac living among tombs. This woman joins that sacred company of the excluded whom Jesus refuses to ignore. Her story teaches us about the nature of private suffering - issues we carry that others cannot see, pain we've learned to hide behind makeup, clothing, and even our worship. She represents everyone who has mastered the art of looking whole while something internal is steadily draining them. What makes her journey remarkable is not just her healing, but her progression: she talked to herself in faith, she turned toward Jesus despite the law forbidding her presence, she touched the hem of His garment with desperate determination, and finally she testified about what God had done. Her twelve-year issue had outlasted her strength and resources, yet it could not outlast her faith. We learn that sometimes what we hear about Jesus plants seeds long before we see the fruit, and that faith begins changing our thinking and behavior before it changes our circumstances. This message challenges us to examine what issues we've been carrying, what edges we've been living on, and whether we're ready to press through the crowd to touch Jesus for ourselves.