Mark 10

"Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” vv.46-48

Read chapter 10.  

The first thing I noticed when reading this chapter was that the blind man has a name, Bartimaeus.  Of course every man has a name but it seems like a lot of times in scripture they're just called "a blind man" or "a boy with a demon" or "a lame man," but here the blind man is named in scripture for all to read about and as we see has great faith in Jesus.  There were many blind beggars then as they didn't have the sort of help for blind people we have today so seem like a common situation and also reason possibly for the crowd to tell him to be quiet be more annoyed by him than compassionate.  Bartimaeus doesn't let them hide him from Jesus but cried out all the more for the Lord to have mercy on him.  How often people intimidate others in whatever their situation from turning and crying out to the Lord.  Let us never let anyone stop us from reaching out to Christ.  How does knowing this blind mans name encourage you?  When have you felt discouraged by others when turning to the Lord?  What resulted in your actions/response?