Podcasts about gerasene

On this episode of Preaching the Text, John Hoyum and Steve Paulson discuss the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac. This man, inhabited by many demons and the object of derision for his neighbors, is iconic of a person trapped under the burden of the law. Paulson and Hoyum show how the healing ministry of Jesus sets people free from such burdens into a new life of faith. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Preorder Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi More from the hosts: John Hoyum Steven Paulson  

In Dark Sayings, I explain how Emperor Justinian stands as a striking example of imperial harlotry. Like all rulers, he filtered Scripture through his own agenda—much like what we see in 2025, with elites twisting the biblical text to justify the very actions it condemns. Today's world leaders are effectively reenacting the sins of the Bible's villains.If it weren't a tragedy, it would be a comedy. I'd sit with Jonah beneath the vine—bag of popcorn in hand.What came of Justinian copying the sins condemned in Scripture?A massive stone temple—still longed for today. This longing betrays a rejection of the preaching of the story of the Gerasene demoniac, where God himself, through his anointed Slave, rejects Roman law and silences the Greek intellectual tradition.In defiance of this witness, Justinian—praised even now—translated Roman law into Greek, a move that flatly contradicts the biblical text.O foolish Galatians. You asked for a king, and you got one.Justinian's reign was marked by a bloody attempt to resurrect Rome's former glory: the North African campaign against the Vandals, the prolonged and ruinous Gothic Wars in Italy, and a brief incursion into southern Spain. These campaigns were catastrophically expensive, devastating to local populations, and—like all imperial games—ended in failure. Far worse was the Justinianic Plague, a lethal epidemic that ravaged both the population and the economy.Together, these calamities fractured the region's future. Though the Western Roman Empire had already collapsed in the 5th century, Justinian's ambitions destabilized its successors and hindered the organic development of local societies.Things might have turned out differently. We might have avoided the first Dark Age—or at least the first one we know of—had Justinian not tried to impose a new civilization atop the ruins of the old.Dear friends:There is no God but One.He is the Heavenly Shepherd.He claims no embassy, joins no assembly, and takes no seat at your councils.He casts no vote, answers to no electorate, and has no constituents.He occupies no office, nor does he dwell in any capital.He is beholden to nothing and answers to no one.His throne is in the heavens, far beyond your reach, where maps are not drawn.Be afraid oh nations.Tremble with fear, oh bordermongers, for he is not mocked—Not by you, nor your puny gods, nor your counterfeit leaders.I place all my hope in his Slave who trusted in his command to subdue the Latin-lex and silence the Greco-lego at the Decapolis in Luke.Everything I do, I do for this Slave's Rebellion.This week, I discuss Luke 8:30.Show Notesἐρημόω (erēmoō) / ח־ר־ב (ḥet–resh–bet) / خ–ر–ب (khāʾ–rāʾ–bāʾ)To dry up, to be desolate, or to be destroyed. To be devastated, often referring to lands, cities, or nations. Greek examples in the LXX include: ξηραίνω (xērainō - to dry up), ἐρημόω (erēmoō - to make desolate), ἀφανίζω (aphanizō - to destroy).In Hebrew חָרַב and Arabic خَرِبَ both describe the undoing of cities, structures, or human systems—especially in the wake of divine judgment.In both the Bible and the Qur'an, ruin is not random—it is the consequence of injustice, arrogance, or rejection of divine instruction.Isaiah 51:10 – “Was it not you who dried up (הַמַּחֲרֶבֶת [ha-maḥărébet]) the sea…”Surah Al-Hashr 59:2 - “They destroy (يُخْرِبُونَ [yukh'ribūna]) their houses with their own hands…” يُخْرِبُونَ (yukh'ribūna) comes from خَرَّبَ (khar·ra·ba) — they lay waste / destroy, describing the self-inflicted ruin of the Banu Nadir tribe, continuing on the itinerary of civilizational ruin brought on by pride and resistance to God's covenant.The function ח-ר-ב (ḥ-r-b) appears in Scripture to prescribe the destruction of cities and the downfall of kings—figures aligned with human systems of law and control. This same root functions in the name Mount Horeb, the site where divine law is given. It also functions as “sword,” an agent of God's judgment. In Exodus 32:27, Moses commands the Levites at Horeb to take up their swords ח-ר-ב (ḥ-r-b) and execute judgment within the camp after the sin of the golden calf, connecting the themes of lawgiving and purifying violence. ח-ר-ב (ḥ-r-b) highlights the biblical tension between the collapse of human law and the assertion of divine will through biblical instruction and judgment.In the Septuagint, ἐρημόω (erēmoō) corresponds lexically to ח-ר-ב (ḥ-r-b) in the following passages: Judges 16:24; 2 Kings 19:17; Job 14:11; Isaiah 34:10; Isaiah 37:18, 25; Isaiah 44:27; Isaiah 49:17; Isaiah 51:10; Isaiah 60:12; Jeremiah 28:36; Jeremiah 33:9; Ezekiel 26:2, 19; Ezekiel 29:12; Ezekiel 30:7; Amos 7:9.Λεγιών (legiṓn)(For a detailed discussion, please see Blaise Webster's article, The Crux of Paul and John's Gospel.)From the Latin legio, meaning legion, a Roman military unit (~6,000 soldiers), itself from the Indo-European root legō.From Latin legō, we also get Lex—law (that which is gathered or set in order)Lex, derived from legō, becomes a symbol of civilizational control—a codified system that enforces order, often violently.Roman Legions (from the same root) are the custodians of lex, instruments of imperial coercion and domination.Lex and legion are bound together both linguistically and ideologically—law enforced by gathered violence.In Greek, λόγος (logos) stems from λέγω and is associated in Hellenistic philosophy with reason, logic, and natural law. The Pauline School's co-opting of this term is an attack on Hellenism.For Paul, λόγος is not Greek reason, but shorthand for “the word of the cross” (ὁ λόγος τοῦ σταυροῦ)—foolishness to the world and power to those being saved, who trust in God's victory (1 Corinthians 1:18); Knowing that his work will find its own completion in the Day of the Lord. (Philippians 1:6)Unlike the constructive Greek logos, which seeks order and coherence, the Pauline logos is destructive—an insurgent word embedded within Greco-Roman structures, intended to bring about their co-termination in the execution of Jesus, thereby dismantling the entire system.Lex (law) and lego (rhetoric/philosophy) represent false structures of control and meaning, in opposition to the Pauline gospel.T...

In this thought-provoking episode of Father and Joe, hosts Father Boniface and Joe Rockey delve into the complex reactions of the townspeople in the biblical story of the Gerasene demoniac. Join them as they uncover the profound spiritual insights hidden within this narrative from the Gospel of Matthew.As Joe questions the puzzling reaction of the townspeople, who ask Jesus to leave after He miraculously heals a demon-possessed man, Father Boniface provides a deep and enlightening understanding. He explains that the power of Jesus is fundamentally the power of love, capable of transforming and freeing even the most isolated and tormented individuals. Yet, it is this very power that instills fear and apprehension among the townspeople—a fear of the unknown and the transformations it may demand.Throughout the episode, Father Boniface illuminates the transformative power of love and mercy, both in biblical times and in our daily lives. He emphasizes that God's wild and reckless love always meets us where we are, extending mercy that respects our individual pacing and willingness to convert. Through mercy, God desires to guide us toward justice—right relationships with ourselves and others.The hosts draw a parallel between this biblical story and our own struggles with demons, not necessarily supernatural, but the personal battles that isolate us from others. They discuss the importance of relationships in healing and growth, highlighting how we can reach out for help and offer love to those in need.As the conversation unfolds, Father Boniface and Joe also reflect on the often overlooked significance of Divine Mercy in the Catholic tradition. They remind listeners of the profound message: God's love is ever-present, extending to us, no matter our circumstances or how far we have strayed. In a world filled with challenges and uncertainties, this episode calls us to embrace the love of God, which not only frees us from our demons but empowers us to repair broken relationships and live in right harmony with others.Whether you struggle with faith, question divine interventions, or seek a more profound connection with God, this episode offers spiritual guidance and encouragement to delve deeper into the transformative power of love and mercy.Tags:Biblical Stories, Faith, Spirituality, Jesus, Demons, Love, Mercy, Divinity, Relationships, Christianity, Faith Journey, Divine Interventions, Healing, Transformation, Gospel of Matthew, Apostle Reactions, God's Power, Divine Love, Isolation, Fear of Change, Right Relationships, Catholic Tradition, Divine Mercy, Faith Reflection, Bible Study, Personal Growth, Spiritual Guidance, Overcoming Fear, Community Healing, Love and Transformation, Catholic Faith, Emotional Healing, Power of Love, Faith Challenges, Personal Demons, Biblical Insights, Faith Conversations, Divine Love, Mental Battles, Healing Through Relationships, Faithful DiscussionsHashtags:#BiblicalStories, #Faith, #Spirituality, #Jesus, #Demons, #Love, #Mercy, #Divinity, #Relationships, #Christianity, #FaithJourney, #DivineInterventions, #Healing, #Transformation, #GospelOfMatthew, #ApostleReactions, #GodPower, #DivineLove, #Isolation, #FearOfChange, #RightRelationships, #CatholicTradition, #DivineMercy, #FaithReflection, #BibleStudy, #PersonalGrowth, #SpiritualGuidance, #OvercomingFear, #CommunityHealing, #CatholicFaith, #EmotionalHealing, #PowerOfLove, #FaithChallenges, #PersonalDemons, #BiblicalInsights, #FaithConversations, #MentalBattles, #HealingThroughRelationships, #FaithfulDiscussions

On Mark 5: 1-20: Jesus disarms our deepest fears and disrupts the deals that we've made to keep our fear at bay. Jesus protects and provides, so fear has no dominion here. There is deliverance and healing available to us; protection and provision in the lordship of Jesus. There's a cosmic battle happening in this story. But there's also a personal transformation. This is what Jesus does: He disarms our deepest fears and in doing so, he disrupts the deals we've made to keep those fears at bay. Jesus protects and provides so that fear has no dominion here.  There is deliverance and healing, protection and provision today in the lordship of Jesus Christ. The cosmic battle Jesus is in is not just an abstract spiritual battle; Jesus is fighting against the powers that demonize and marginalize vulnerable people to solidify wealth and power. And He is recruiting this man from being used by his own culture to solidify fear and rally everyone around a common scapegoat. Jesus is de-scapegoating the demoniac in Gerasene.Friends, fear drives our economy and our culture. But today we proclaim the good news that Jesus disarms our deepest fears. We no longer have to have scapegoats. We no longer have to be angry or scared of the demoniac. We no longer have to use him for our economy, but we can receive him back home and hear the story of the good news that God has done in his life. He can become part of our community.

READ MARK 5:1-20 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. Jesus sees the Gerasene cemetery as it really is: JUST a PLACE . v. 1-2 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore,…

Readings for Monday of the 4th Week OT

The Gospel Unbound: Unmasking the Chains – Voices of Liberation and Justice - Mark 5 - Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarbor or watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard Summary: In this week's sermon, Pastor Donnell explores the profound themes of oppression and liberation, drawing on the insights of Howard Thurman and James Cone to highlight Christianity's commitment to the oppressed. He challenges the notion that the gospel is solely about spiritual salvation, emphasizing its call for physical, emotional, and systemic liberation. Anchoring his message in 2 Corinthians 3:17, Pastor Donnell reminds us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty—liberty that must permeate our societal structures and personal interactions.   Pastor Donnell discusses contemporary and historical injustices, using the story of the Gerasene demoniac from Mark 5 to illustrate how Jesus' ministry was actively committed to confronting and dismantling the powers of bondage. This passage not only reflects the plight of those oppressed by visible and invisible chains but also calls Christians to actively participate in the struggle against these oppressive forces by naming, opposing, and seeking to overcome them.   Concluding his message, Pastor Donnell invites the congregation to reflect on their role in perpetuating or combating oppressive ideologies. He encourages a Christianity that does more than observe; it acts to heal and liberate. By advocating for a practical application of Jesus' teachings, Pastor Donnell urges the community to commit to justice, inclusivity, and the destruction of the walls that divide us. The sermon ends with a practical tip: to dedicate time each week to reflect on how one can actively contribute to creating a more just and equitable society, truly embodying the liberating power of the gospel.

In this enlightening episode, we dive deep into one of the most powerful Biblical depictions of God's supreme authority over demonic forces. This dissection of verses 1 through 20 of Mark chapter 5 centers around the extraordinary encounter between Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac, a man possessed by a horde of evil spirits. We explore the repercussions of this potent manifestation of spiritual warfare and its significant impact on the wider community. Join us in this electrifying exploration of Biblical teachings that assure Jesus Christ, the Son of God, holds power over all spiritual entities. This episode paints a chilling picture of a man living a profane life, consumed by demonic possession. We explore his life among the tombs, his menacing presence, and his unnerving strength, attributing it to his demonic possession. Faced with a choice between Jesus and the possessed man, society chooses to rid itself of Jesus, revealing its warped moral compass. We delve into the far-reaching influence of Satan and his fallen angels in the prevalent myriad religions worldwide, their ability to mislead away from the truth, and the marked increase in spiritual madness and demon-induced behavior. It parallels modern phenomena like drug abuse and sexual perversions, acting as gateways to demonic influences. Despite the daunting presence of these evils, faith shines brightest when the demon-possessed man recognizes Jesus, his tormentor, and runs to worship him. Intriguing narratives are unfolded about the network of demons who initially were taken aback by Christ's arrival. The demons acknowledged the divine identity of Jesus, recognized Him as the King of kings and understood their fate. Misundershooting the timing of unfolding divine events, they found themselves defenseless in front of Jesus's authority to execute divine judgment and sentence them to eternal punishment. This compelling account deepens our understanding of demonology and Christ's immeasurable authority and power. The ultimate takeaway is the power of Jesus is greater than any evil force in the world. The demons know this, and now, so do we.

Who did the Gerasene demoniac think Jesus was? What did Jesus demonstrate during exorcism that proved to the Second Temple Jews and early Church believers that He was God? What changed in exorcism between the events in the Torah and the Gospels? Were any exorcisms documented in the Torah? Why are the rites of Solomon useless, especially in this dispensation of the end times of the Church? Let's examine the supernatural ministry of Jesus Christ as He demonstrated who He is through miracles, signs, and wonders of expelling unclean spirits. The Tales of Glory - Demonology 103 class is now in session. #TalesOfGlory #M16Ministries #AFieldGuideToSpiritualWarfare

Walk In Heavenly Places By Faith (6)  (audio) David Eells - 8/27/23  Our Enemies Are Made Tiny  Marie Kelton 8/7/23  During the meeting I was dealing with anxiety. I then had an open vision of a big scorpion (fear) attacking my spirit man. I then saw the Lord Jesus and He was really big. The Lord picked up the scorpion and it was really small in His hand. The Lord crushed the scorpion. (The enemy always wants us to think he is bigger than he is. We need to remember the truth and how Jesus already destroyed our enemies at the cross, and He has given us authority to plunder his kingdom and take our promised land.)  Luk 11:21-23 When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods are in peace: 22 but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 23 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. (Scorpions will attempt to cause us to scatter, to run in fear, but we must fight and make war against them.)  I had another open vision of me sitting next to the Lord in heaven; He was huge but I was huge also. (We need to see ourselves as seated in the heavens which is abiding in Christ.  Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: 1Jn 4:4 Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And verses 17-18 Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.  The Lord then passed the scorpion from the vision above to me which was really tiny in my hand. I knew he wanted me to crush it. (Luk 10:19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you.)   Php 4:13 I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me. Psa 18:34 He teacheth my hands to war; So that mine arms do bend a bow of brass. Psa 144:1 A Psalm of David. Blessed be Jehovah my rock, Who teacheth my hands to war, And my fingers to fight:    Lost Keys – Found!  Samuel Fire - 2022   I lost my car keys and I searched everywhere I could for them. I searched everywhere; including to stop the wash cycle in the washing machine, pull all the clothes out and I still couldn't find them. I then spoke to Tianna about it and she said to go and ask God where they are because He knows.   So, I stopped, calmed down and prayed and not long after, I insisted that I heard birds say, “In the washing, in the washing”. But because I had already looked in the washing machine, I was confused. Being obedient, I went and looked there again, but this time I felt to look in the lint rubber guard and there they were, praise God!   Always seek Him and He will help you and we can't do anything in our own strength.     He Passed Out, Twice  Tianna Fire 12/30/22   I went to the toilet, and I heard a loud thud, and I ran to the kitchen and Samuel had passed out and fallen face down on the tiles. I tried to speak with him but he was unresponsive for a while but then he was able to get up, but he had no knowledge of what had happened or why or where he was or what he was doing.   He couldn't remember much long-term stuff, or short term and kept forgetting things around every 30 seconds. All day and for some of the next day he would ask the same basic questions repeatedly many times, such as, “Where are we, what age is our son, what year is it, why is he in pain?” He seemed to have forgotten so much and couldn't remember anything. A few days after his memory returned to normal, he still couldn't remember what happened and the day of him passing out.   This was a big trial of my patience with being kind in having to answer the same questions repeatedly, over and over and over, every 30 seconds or so, and helping Samuel to do things. It was also a big trial with battling fear in giving into sight, because he wasn't remembering and was extremely confused and had physical pain in his head and throughout his entire body.  Brethren prayed for us, and praise God after that I had an abundance of joy come over me and I was able to be joyful and thankful to our Father for this situation. And with God's grace, it was so very much easier to be patient and kind in having to answer the same questions over and over. I was able to laugh in a joyful loving way with God creating this situation, because I have prayed before for God to give me the gift of patience.  After that grace of joy, God gave me faith to just continue doing the normal things we usually do, and it was easier to just ignore the physical symptoms. By Gods' grace, Jesus through Samuel even drove us to the shop, even though Samuel didn't know the directions, despite having driven there more times than we can count, and that it was only 3 streets away. He didn't even remember any of this day. By Gods' grace I didn't receive the enemies' thoughts or fear of Samuel fainting while driving or something going wrong. But I wanted to just believe that God was in control and that Jesus had healed Samuel and to continue our normal day that Samuel was healed at the cross and he could drive us to the shops. It was ALL God.   The whole day Samuel was asking the same questions over and over about every 30 seconds, and the next day wasn't as bad, and his memory was a little better although he still didn't remember much and was asking the same questions.   I ended up writing down the answers to all the questions he kept asking so he could just keep reading the whiteboard and get the answers. Around every 30 seconds to a minute, he would re-read the white board and have funny expressions because he was confused and shocked at the answers because he couldn't remember. For example, he couldn't remember that our son is around a year of age as he thought he was only a few months old. When he read our son is a year old, he would have a shock reaction and it was pretty funny. God is so awesome.   The next day Samuel passed out again in the morning. Then in the afternoon he passed out again while he was in the other room praying upstairs. I heard the loud thump, and I ran over to him, and he was lying on his back on the ground. He had smashed his head on the drawers as they had been moved and parts of it broken and then fell on the ground.   Samuel's eyes were open staring but not moving and I tried to speak with him, but he didn't respond for about 30 seconds. He then was able to respond but he was really confused as to where we were and why, and why I was there as he thought that “years” had gone by and we were living a completely different life; he had had a vision.   Samuel was in a lot of physical pain and the brethren prayed for us and the physical pain left minutes after.   He improved much quicker this time, and a little later, his memory returned that he had of the vision and the details of it started to come back. The following day his memory was almost back to normal apart from not remembering the first day when he fainted and he was physically better, praise our God!   ALL GLORY TO OUR INCREDIBLE AND FAITHFUL FATHER! Thank You Lord that You are in control, and everything is for Your Glory and Praise!     Demons Trying To Cause To Stumble  Anonymous 5/29/23  I had been battling dizziness for about a week and I had it again just a while ago. So, I went to look up on the internet possible reasons why I could be dizzy.   I then heard two demons speaking with each other and they were saying how they have been trying to get me to wonder, and question why I have this dizziness and to then look it up. I realized that when I begin to question “Why?” I am doubting God and giving into unbelief, which then gives them a legal right to afflict me more.  When I search on-line, looking things up of possible causes, I am trusting man and the flesh, this also allows them to continue these attacks. I knew then if I just stand in faith, trusting God and knowing that He is in control of this, when I overcome questioning God, doubt, worry and giving into the lying symptoms, then it will all go away, and the devils can no longer afflict me. They can only afflict me when I give them a legal right.   After getting this revelation, I had doubt that what I saw was real and my flesh still wanted me to look up what could be causing the dizziness. I paused thinking for a few moments on what I should do as my flesh really wanted to know why I could be dizzy, in physical carnal terms.   Then God spoke to me so clearly and said, "Are you really going to still do that knowing it's fallen angels wanting you to do it?" I closed the tab and got off my phone. I want to stop wondering “why?” I'm having these symptoms and just rest, because God is in control.    Eight Day Deliverance  Donna Loftus    Dear Michael,  You said to send in testimonies that pertain to the angels or the Word of the Lord. Well, this is mine that came by word of the Lord. I did not get the e-mail about fasting for the 8 days. So, when I heard about it later, on the podcast, I was very disappointed and grieved but God used this to help motivate me into action.   So, I did some fasting and drew near to God and he delivered me from overeating. I'm just not hungry like I used to be. I have lost some weight and I'm drawing much closer to the Lord. He also gave me a vision of a body of water and a cross submerged into water about 3/4 down. (Which I believe He was showing me the water of His word devouring the curse in my life.) Also, a word I got from the Lord was, “Stand, Guard and see the salvation of the King!” Hallelujah!!     Father Confirms Spiritually and Physically Job Status  Isaac Payne - 7/31/22  I wanted to share a testimony that happened to me that was quite miraculous. I'll start with the events that led up to this testimony. For some time now, I have been overburdened with my job. I say this not to complain, but with the hope of using the situation to glorify Father. However, my role and responsibility at work has dramatically increased and my compensation has not. Compensation is not something I really think about, Thank God! See, what John the Baptist said to the soldiers. Luk 3:14 And the soldiers asked him, saying, And we, what must we do? And he said unto them, Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully; and be content with your wages.   Back to the responsibilities, there are different levels of engineering reaching up to a senior level engineer which is a level 5 role. I am at a level 2, but doing a level 3 & 4 job. This role requires supervising installation integrators, ordering parts, building the electrical schematics, designing the PLC code and Human machine interface, leading the project, collaborating with contractors and the client, and traveling to site to commission and implement the equipment to the customer and perform acceptance testing. Other projects of this type of scope will have about 15 people to help, but in these projects, it has been just me. Father placed me in this job right as Covid was hitting the United States. This job has been wonderful for me spiritually, especially while being on the road and experiencing my own personal wilderness and Father using this to put to death the old man.   The last few months, I've been thinking that my time was done at this position. Traveling for extended periods of time are hard on a family. It is very hard to leave and say bye to the kids as they cry wanting me to stay home. Marianna and I have been praying that Father would reveal to me what I should do concerning my job. During that time, I had multiple dreams confirming to me that my time was done at this job, and I wasn't being hasty because I can say Father has given me the strength to endure during my tenure here at this company.   I'll keep the dreams very brief and explain the summary. In one dream I was running a road race. I believe it was a 5K road race. There were other runners in the race, but for some reason I didn't see them. I was racing against myself, as I was my own competition. I was competing against my previous PR "Personal Record." I remember running as hard as I could, thinking that if I slowed down my old PR would beat me. I finished the race in first place. I was really surprised because I didn't expect first place, I just wanted a new PR. I then saw my mile split on a teleprompter and it was 1 mile in 4 minutes and 40 seconds. 144! My coach in the dream then contacted me, wanting to congratulate me and share the success with the rest of the team. To my surprise, my boss at work was my coach. Then I woke up.   I had the previous dream months ago. I personally did not want to leave my job because I was still a bit ambitious. I wanted to finish the job I was the project lead of, and I wouldn't be done with that job until November. Marianna and I were still believing as we had prayed, and I was asking for another dream to really confirm. I was still hesitant to leave my job and wanted a little more confirmation. I then had another dream. In this dream, I was in a Men's Warehouse clothing store. (I actually commission sorters and conveyors systems in distribution warehouses.) There were lots of very nice clothing in this shop. Although, I only remember seeing black dress suits. I came into this shop wearing a blue tie and another tie but I'm not exactly sure the color of the second tie, maybe gold. I asked the tailor what my ties were worth and if I could trade them in. He told me that they were worth $5. There was a yellow tie behind the tailor that was for sale. I asked him how much for the yellow tie, he said $6. I traded my blue tie for the yellow tie. I also traded in the other tie as well, possibly for a pinkish colored tie. I'm not sure exactly about the second tie. Then I woke up. When I woke up, immediately the verse came to my mind. Mat 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29.) Take my yoke upon you, (the blue tie) and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30.) For my yoke is easy, and burden is light.   I knew instantly that the blue tie was his heavenly yoke of grace which is why it was $5 and the yellow tie I was exchanging it for was caution and the yoke of man, hence worth $6. I have been knowing lately that this job has been interfering with my relationship with Father.  After these dreams, I still had the same plan to continue finishing my project till November and then start to look for another job. I really wanted the accolades of being the lead and the stature of completing such a massive multi-million-dollar project on my resume. I was still pursuing my own goals within the company I work for.   Weeks later, I was getting ready to travel to San Francisco to commission another sorter at a distribution warehouse. Marianna and the kids had still been asking me to quit my job for some time. I really wasn't looking forward to going to San Francisco to work and be so far from my family. The night before I was to travel to San Francisco, Marianna and I prayed and asked Father to give me a definitive dream, so I could just know when to quit my job. I don't have a backup plan and I have never left a job without having another job lined up. I woke early in the morning and did not have a dream, so I was headed to San Francisco to work.  Marianna and the kids dropped me off at the airport around 5:45 am. I was waiting in line to check in my baggage. I was feeling very burdened about leaving my family and traveling for work. I know better than to trust my feelings as feeling and the soulish realm can be deceptive. It came to my mind the prayer David Eells prayed when his family had no food. "Lord fill our plates or fill our tummies." I just said a similar prayer. I said, "Lord either change my attitude, or get me out of this job immediately." I continued and gave my bags to the airport associates, went through TSA, and made it to my gate waiting to board the plane. I'm not going home now, or so I thought. It was about time to board my flight and I was group 1 boarding which means I would be the first group of passengers to board. As the hostess called for group 1 boarding, I had to use the restroom.   I arrived back at boarding, and it was group 3 or 4, I'm assuming. I was in line, and it was almost my time to give my boarding ticket and board the plane. There was only one person in front of me. At this point, there were probably around 30 or more people who had already boarded the flight and another 30 or 40 behind me waiting to board. The hostess received a phone call. She told the other hostess to the let the guy in front me board the plane, but then stop boarding with me. I was the very next person to board; I was in the very front of the line. I waited in the front of the line for about 10 to 15 minutes. I asked the lady what had happened. She said, "The captain has told us to stop boarding." I expected such a vague reason, but still figured I'd ask. I thought the reason was probably an unhappy passenger causing a commotion. It then dawned on me that maybe Father is answering my original prayer I prayed at baggage check-in, "Lord change my attitude, or get me out of this job immediately."   For some reason, I just spoke another prayer out of my mouth. I don't even think the prayer was me or my thoughts, it just happened. I said as I was waiting, "Father if this is you, make all those people who boarded the plane, exit the plane right now in Jesus name!" Right at that moment, I could hear shuffling back up the plane ramp and to my surprise people were exiting the plane. Where I was standing, you could not see the ramp as it descends and turns. People came walking around the corner from the plane returning to the gate. About 30 or 40 people walked down the ramp. I prayed the prayer, and it was in Father's hands, but it happened so fast it was still surprised and astonishing. At that point, the hostess grabbed the microphone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the flight has been canceled due to a mechanical failure, the Landing gear is defective, and we do not have the parts at the airport to correct the issue." If you would have looked at me, my jaw was probably dropping to the floor in amazement. I said to the hostess. "Can I grab my bags and just leave the airport and go back home?" She said, "Sure, go back to baggage check-in and they will grab the bags off the plane."   I went back to baggage check-in and was waiting in line to receive my bags. I called Marianna and told her to come pick me up. Her and the kids were thrilled. As I was still waiting in line for my bags, I began to talk to a gentleman waiting in line with me. He also was on the same flight and was going to go back to his house. I shared this testimony with him, and he was astonished as well. He even said something along the lines, "God is trying to show you something." As we continued to talk, he told me that he is a job recruiter. He gave me his contact info and told me to call him. Again, my jaw was literally dropping. Marianna and the kids picked me back up and a few hours later, I put in my resignation. For the record, I'm not suggesting people just quit their jobs, but this is what Father was doing with me. I was certainly in a place of weakness, but a place where Father would give me a measure of His faith. Amen!  I also wanted to state this. As I initially got home and laid back in bed, fear began to come over me. I was thinking to myself, just grab a plane tomorrow and fly back out there, you can put your two weeks' notice in on the road. Other thoughts of, “Isaac, you have bills and mortgage, what if you can't find a job and you and the family go homeless?”   Many thoughts began to come to me, and try and reason with me. Even so much as to try to convince me that what had just happened really wasn't much of a miracle, maybe you're looking too deep into this and leading yourself away. However, I have the mind of Christ, and these are not my thoughts, and neither are they Christ's thoughts.   I talked to Marianna and she said, "Isaac you can't go back, how much more obvious does it need to be to get you to listen to God." She went on to say, "Isaac, think of Jonah, if you go back, they will have to throw you off the plane to keep it from crashing, do you want to be swallowed up by a giant bird?" She was right, I had to get out of bed, and not let my mind be idle. I sat down and began to read the word, and just keep reading. Rom 10:17 So belief cometh from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.   I knew I now needed to put my resignation in so I wouldn't be tempted to go backwards on faith. Heb 10:38 But my righteous one shall live by faith: and he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.   So, I put in my resignation. My boss had me call him immediately and he tried to convince me otherwise, less responsibilities, and such. His name is Muhammad, and he is Muslim, I told him the miracle that Father had done for me, I needed to acknowledge God in front of man. Mat 10:32-33 Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven. 33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him also will I deny before my Father who is in heaven.   I needed to act on this swiftly and did, thanks be to God! I realized while initially battling with this myself, how people in the bible, even those who physically were there and witnessed miracles that Jesus did, could over time quit believing and talk themselves out of it. I knew I had to stay in the Word, speak it over my life, think on it throughout the day, cast thoughts down. I have the mind of Christ! Hallelujah! Within a month after the miraculous departure from my previous job where I travelled excessively, I received three job offers. I had no income for the month and had many bills to pay. I was just walking out my faith because the Lord showed His strong hand at the airport. In all my professional career, I can tell you that I have never been so pursued by so many companies and, or job recruiters. It was at the point where I would just tell them on the phone I wasn't interested.  It was awesome because the Lord gave me favor and it seemed more like, I was the one doing the interviewing of the companies; all glory to God as He pours His favor on his children!   Concerning the three job offers, I didn't know which job to choose. I asked the Lord for a dream, and I received two dreams. In one dream, it showed my future at a food manufacturing company in which I would be in charge of three plants concerning Controls Automation. In the dream, I was taking a call in the middle of the night because they needed me to come back in to work all through the night, even though it was a day shift job. I was frustrated in the dream.   In the other dream, another company that offered me a job was with a Japanese automotive manufacturer. In this dream I was looking at the equipment, but wasn't familiar with it, however I was not frustrated or pressured. I just needed to learn this foreign equipment.   Within the week I was talking to a brother of mine in Christ named Justin. As I was talking to him, he was going to a kid's baseball game and randomly parked behind a Mitsubishi automobile. That was the name of the Japanese automotive manufacturer that offered me the job. He said, "Isaac, there aren't a lot of Mitsubishi cars that I have seen, but I think this is confirmation. That's when I knew to make my decision and go with Mitsubishi. Also, Mitsubishi came back with an offer that superseded what I was originally making by around 60%. The job recruiter told me that they have never offered this much before and had to present the wages to the president of the company for approval and sure enough he signed off and hired me as a top level engineer.   I didn't know that there were levels of engineering in this role and never once did the company and I even discuss such matters. What is amazing about this is that I never even tried to bargain or counter about wages.  I wasn't even thinking about money, I just wanted to be home with my family. I am still at Mitsubishi, and they have been so patient with me, offering all kinds of training to me as I get caught up with their equipment that I was not familiar with. What's cool is my boss is also a Christian and has shown a lot of favor towards me. He has told me many times, "I believe God sent you here." Thank you Father, you've done it all, literally everything!    Learning To Walk In Your Faith  David Eells  Don't ever fear to make a bold statement of faith. You may think, “Well, is this God?” Don't worry about it. If it's to meet your need, if it's to overcome the curse, don't worry about it. I remember once when I called Sid and we were talking about what happened the time that my washing machine seal had gone out. Sand had gotten in it and ruined the seal. Sid had volunteered and said, “Oh, I have a friend who works on those things. I'll get him to come by there and get it.” So I said, “Okay.” So he came by and picked it up and took it off, and Sid called me back a few days later. He said, “Look, he fixed this and he fixed that, and it'll just cost you $70.” I said, “Fine. Bring it on over.” Well, I knew Sid was coming over the next day to drop off the washing machine and I only had $20. And so I prayed a prayer. I said, “Father, you said You supply my every need according to Your riches in glory and I thank You for it.” Then I stuck my finger out there and I pointed at the mailbox and said to Mary. “In the name of Jesus, $50 is coming in that mailbox today.”  Do you know, I went out to that mailbox and there was $50 in that mailbox in a check, and there was a note. It read, “God wouldn't let me go to sleep. It's now after midnight and God wouldn't let me go to sleep until I sent you this check for $50.” And the funny thing was, I don't ever look at postdates, but I looked at the postdate on the check and the thing had been sent two weeks before this day, a full two weeks before this day when I stuck my finger out and pointed at the mailbox. That envelope had been hung up in the mail somewhere for two weeks, wandering around, and it didn't make it into that mailbox until the right time. But God wouldn't let this poor guy sleep until he went out there and wrote the check and stuck it in the mail, even though it wandered around in the mail. I don't know what the reason for it was, but it didn't come there until it was time for it to be there. God answers before we call (Isaiah 65:24). Do you realize that? God does not dwell in time but we do.   Don't think it's too late because it's never too late for God. God has the answer coming when you speak it and I've seen the biggest miracles happen when a bold statement of faith is made. The devil is telling you all the time, “Nah, nah, nah, nah,” in your ear, saying, “Boy, you're going to look like a fool!” But God won't let you be put to shame. The Bible says that He won't let you be put to shame (Romans 9:33). Anybody who puts their trust in Him shall not be put to shame, the Lord says. (Rom.10:10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. You need to actually say it. That was an education for me because there have been other times when I just prayed over a leaking washing machine seal and God sealed it up. And there have been times when I've prayed over a carburetor and God fixed it. Then there have been times when I decided I would take that carburetor off and fix it, like one time with my daughter's car when an enemy put sugar in her gas tank. I took the carburetor off and I tore it down. And I'm not bad at working on carburetors. So I tore it down, checked it out, cleaned it up and put it back in, but it did the same thing. I took it back out. It wasn't easy to get out either, but I took it out and went back through it. I said, “Nothing's wrong with this car. I don't see a thing wrong this carburetor,” and I put it back in but it still did the same thing.   Finally, the revelation came to me of, “The devil is messing with you; he's robbing your time.” And so I rebuked the devil off that carburetor. I commanded the devil to loose it. Do you know that there doesn't have to be something wrong with a piece of equipment? The Lord showed me that many times. There doesn't have to be anything wrong with a piece of equipment. The devil is real and he can manifest himself in this realm and he can take advantage of you. Until you take the Word of God and fight him, he can take advantage of you. He was doing that to me. He robbed my time twice to fix that carburetor. And you know what? Just because you don't see something manifest immediately doesn't mean it hasn't happened. The Bible says, “all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them” (Mar.11:24). So I commanded that carburetor to be healed in the name of Jesus. Then Deborah went and got in the car, but when she cranked it up, it was doing the same thing. I said, “Just go; it's healed.” She said before she got to the end of the street, it straightened right out and I never had another problem with it. You know, sometimes you have to walk it. If you believe it, you confess it, walk it. It's like the 10 lepers who were doing according to the Law (Luke 17:12). They had to go show themselves to the priest healed (Leviticus 14). But when they were walking they weren't healed. It didn't come until they walked it out that they got healed (Luke 17:14).   So you have to walk it out. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Just remember that. Some of Jesus' miracles didn't happen immediately. And He didn't even pray twice. We are disciples of Jesus now. We can't see Him, but we're walking with Him and He wants to take us by the hand and show us the way through every problem and situation we come to because it's already been provided for. It says in Scripture, my God shall supply every need of yours…. (Php.4:19). It doesn't matter what the need is. Why did Paul say that? He said that because he knew it was taken care of at the cross. The curse was put upon Jesus.   You can't imagine what this world would be like if there was no curse. Can you imagine what it was like in the Garden of Eden with tomato plants growing 20 feet tall, everything working, nothing breaking, including you, without the curse? Now I realize nobody is totally entered into whatever this means about being delivered from the curse, but individually God's people are entering into different parts of it. The body needs one another because sometimes other people have faith that we don't have in a situation that we're in and we need to pray for people and exercise our faith over one another. But don't think it's not possible. We're going to see God do things in the next few years that we would have considered impossible, that we would have just wondered, “Is that real?” Yes, God's going to do things we haven't seen. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this outpouring of power has never been on this earth that God's getting ready to do.   People are going to walk on water again. They've done it in these days, in these years. I don't know if any of you ever read Like a Mighty Wind or Gentle Breeze of Jesus. They are about the Indonesian revival where many times, many people saw people walk on water. Those little islands out there where they were trying to get the Gospel to, in some cases it was the only method. It was necessary and they didn't let the circumstance stop them from doing the Will of God. The Will of God was to go and so they went. They did not let the circumstance get in the way. They walked on the water and there were a lot of people who saw it.   Yes, the day is coming when you may have to drive a car that doesn't have any gas in it. I've done it quite a few times and it works. When you're going by faith, it works. Or you may have to command some gas into that car and God put some in it. He's done that for me, too. Listen, circumstances can't stop you. Circumstances didn't stop Jesus from doing the Will of God. Did you notice that? It's the same Jesus Whom we have that your “faith may become effectual, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in you” (Phm.6). Wait a minute! He was talking to the saints, people on this earth. That's right. But that's Jesus Christ in the heart of the believer. He has all the power that He ever had. But if you limit Him, you won't let Him speak that word out of your mouth, you won't walk that walk with your feet, you won't do those things. This is not the most important thing in the world that I'm talking about. The most important thing, of course, is to overcome sin, and we've studied on that in other teachings but right now we're talking about not limiting God and seeing just how big He is. It doesn't matter what your need is. God has promised to meet your need.   Do I say you won't be tried? Absolutely not. You're going to be tried. How do you get tried? By lack. You get tried by lack. God suffered the Israelites to lack so that He might know what they would do (Deuteronomy 8:2,3). What are you going to do when you lack? Do you never get sick? No, you get sick sometimes, but the Bible says by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). It's a trial of your faith. God's wanting to see, “What are you going to do with this?” We are being tried. We are going through the wilderness just like the Israelites went through the wilderness. When they went through the wilderness, they suffered lack in this kind of a way and then in that kind of a way and then in this kind of way, and God answered miraculously.   Right now, the righteous, just like always, shall live from faith (Galatians 3:11). The life of faith is an exciting walk with the Lord. You'll see many miracles, if you walk the walk of faith. That's our purpose for being here. God considers a person who walks by faith and speaks faith and uses faith in the circumstances they get in, to be righteous. He calls them “righteous,” like Abraham when he believed God about his seed. That didn't have anything to do with salvation. God called Abraham righteous because he believed God in that point and, you know what? God calls you righteous every time you believe the Word of God. Every time you believe in the prayers that you've prayed, whenever you pray believing you have received (Mark 11:24), when you keep on holding onto that in faith until you see it manifested, then God calls you righteous.   Look at it as if Jesus is taking you by the hand. He's going to show you something tomorrow. He is going to do a miracle through you tomorrow. Big or small, He's going to show you how to walk by faith. Jesus walked by faith. His disciples walked by faith. People who are in the world are under bondage, but people who walk by faith are not under that bondage. When Jesus sent out His disciples, He told them “Don't take anything with you, don't take any money” (Matthew 10:9,10; Luke 10:4). He sent them out in total weakness and later He asked them, “Well, when I sent you out without all these things did you lack anything?” and their answer was, “No, Lord” (Luke 22:35). They found out what it was to walk by faith. They didn't need to bring their own supply because God was there. He did it on purpose. Now in this day, the church is supposed to be doing the same thing. If you obey what Jesus said, you'll be weak, because Jesus made some statements in there that put you in a position of weakness; but every time you're going to see miracles.   When you obey the principles of Jesus, you're going to see miracles because you're always in a position where you can't do it, you can't handle it. He does that on purpose. (Mat.14:25) And in the fourth watch of the night he came unto them, walking upon the sea. (26) And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a ghost; and they cried out for fear. (27) But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. (28) And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the waters. (29) And he said, Come. And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters to come to Jesus. (30) But when he saw the wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. That's the word sozo right there. By grace have you been saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8). (31) And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and took hold of him, and saith unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? (32) And when they were gone up into the boat, the wind ceased. (33) And they that were in the boat worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.   You know, the Lord saved Peter here even in his failure, didn't He? Every trial is from God. Every trial. God is sovereign. (Joh.3:27) … A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven. The circumstances you get in are not by accident. There's no such thing as an accident or luck. That's for the pagans to believe in. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus and saw the wind, then he judged by the circumstance instead of judging by the Word. If he would have judged by the Word, when the almighty God said, “Come,” then Peter must have been able to do it, since He said it. That's the way we have to look at these promises. We must be able to do it because He said it. It's really simple. Peter believed if Jesus said it, he'd be able to do it and he stepped out of the boat, but then he got his eyes on the circumstances.   You always get fearful when you get your eyes on the circumstance because you don't have any hope. Get your eyes on the Savior. You can walk on water when you get your eyes on the Savior. Listen, the laws of faith are totally above the laws of nature; they're always above the laws of nature. We just can't fathom how God could do some of these things. We can't fathom how the lot can come up like it does. Can you think about flipping a quarter up in the air and it coming down exactly the way God wants it to come down? The lot worked. Go back and study it. The lot worked. Why? That wasn't gambling because they believed in a sovereign God. I don't suggest leading your life this way but for confirmations of what you believe God is saying to you. That might have been gambling to some people, but it wasn't to the Israelites. They believed in the sovereignty of God and they believed God would answer that way and He did. He did consistently, even to the extent of finding one man out of all Israel and that happened quite a few times. Saul was picked out that way (1 Samuel 10:21). Saul's son was picked out that way when he made a mistake with eating the honey (1 Samuel 14:32). Jonathan was picked out of all Israel. You know they took the lot by the tribe, then they went to the lot by the family, then they went to the lot by the house. They cast lots several times. But you know what? If you believe in luck, what are the chances of the thing coming out to pick one guy out of all Israel? That's phenomenal. That's a lot of numbers. But God is sovereign.   Well, it can be done in our day, like I said, with a quarter. I don't recommend that people lead their life that way, but I have seen mighty miracles come to pass that way, where the answer had to be from God. But I'm just pointing out that there's no such thing as luck. The world believes in luck and chance, but everything that comes to you is by the hand of God, even if it comes through the hand of the devil. If you remember from reading in the book of Job, there was no luck involved in that. God was sovereign, even over the devil, and He's still sovereign, even over the devil. God sends the devil against you so you can ‘whip him real good.' Did you know that? God will send him against you so you can whip him, so that you learn how to walk by faith and not by sight. The devil is the one who, in most cases, administers the curse.   Who sent the curse? The Bible says that God sent the curse (Deuteronomy 28). I don't care what men say; the Bible says God sent the curse. Who administers it? The devil does. He loves to do it. It's his nature to do it. But, I'll tell you, God sent the curse and God sent Jesus to deliver from the curse. He's working from both sides. God sent the curse to cause people to repent and turn to Him. He sent Jesus to those who will repent. And in the circumstances that we get ourselves into, God wants to show us how to give the devil a bloody nose. He wants to show us how to overcome in the circumstances, just like Jesus did. Jesus wants to move through His hand. (Isa.53:10) … The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. That means God is going to be successful in doing what He did through Jesus, through you. That's what it means. God is going to do that. We should consider it done. He did this for Peter, but what was the whole point? You may think there has to be some real reason for this, that you had to be saving souls or something. No. It didn't do anything for Peter to get out of the boat, except he learned a lesson.   We should ask God to bring us these lessons. It's really valuable to have these lessons that we can look back on and tell to other people to encourage them in the faith and so on. God wants to do miracles through us. Right now we have a short time left for learning some lessons from God. We have a short time left for this and then great trouble is going to come, greater trouble than this land has ever seen. And people who walk in Psalm 91-type faith and who understand about the curse, those are the people who are going to be saved through the midst of this great trouble. A lot of the people are not going to be saved. A lot of Christians, the majority, are going to die through this trouble because the people coming against this land don't like Christians.   Let's look at the story of the Gerasene demoniac. (Luk.8:36) And they that saw it told them how he that was possessed with demons was made whole. And the word there for “made whole” is the same as “saved”, in Greek: sozo. For Christians, we have been “made whole” from demons. It's part of sozo. It's by grace. It's not by grace if you will be. It says by grace you have been saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8). So it's not a matter of, “Let's see if we can convince God to deliver this person.” Jesus never tried to convince God to heal or to deliver anybody. By grace have you been Saved, healed, and delivered. It's all past tense. Everything's past tense. Now there are some places where the people whom we want to deliver are not in covenant with God. And it's strange but most of the church does not even believe that Christians can have demons. I'm going to show you that's not true from the Scriptures. I'm going to show you that it's a lie and anybody who has discerning of spirits knows that it's a lie. I can truthfully tell you almost all the people that I've ever cast demons out of were Christians. Jesus said it's the children's bread to have deliverance. When I'm talking discernment of spirits, I'm talking about the Biblical gift and that is when you see the demons. You see them manifested in their face, you see them manifested in their eyes, you see them in their body. The gift is manifested in different ways, but the discerning of spirits is to be able to see those demons. Word of knowledge can also give the identity of a demon.   Anybody who has that gift doesn't buy that garbage about Christians not having demons. And I'll tell you what the Lord showed me about it. Those who don't believe that Christians can have demons quote “My spirit will not dwell in an unclean temple,” but there's no verse like that in the Bible. It's not there. What the Bible actually says is that the flesh is an unclean temple (Galatians 5:19). Did you know that? It's an enemy. It's at enmity with your spirit. It is the enemy of your spirit (Galatians 5:17).   The covering over the tent of the tabernacle in the wilderness was animal skins and guess what kind of animal skins they were? Goats. Who were the goats? The goats were those who were set on the left while the lambs, the sheep, were on the right. Well, that was goats' hair covering it. Why? Because the flesh is the enemy of God. The flesh can't go to Heaven. Flesh never goes to Heaven. (1Co.15:50)… Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…. You either get a new body or you don't go. You either go in spirit and in soul, or you don't go because this body doesn't go there. You get a new one.   The flesh is the enemy of God. God showed me this years ago. I had to have a theological reason because I was casting demons out of Christians and everybody said you can't do that. So I went to God and said, “God, show me in the Scriptures.” And God brought me back to the tabernacle in the wilderness and He showed me, as I read about the tabernacle in the wilderness, how it represents us because we are the tabernacle in the wilderness. The holy of holies, of course, is your spirit because that's where God dwells. He dwells in your spirit. And then there's the holy place representing your soul. And there's the outer court which represents your flesh. What God showed to me I've never forgotten because I learned what the Christians told me was the difference between oppression and possession. They say that oppression is when the devil's on the outside and possession is when he's on the inside, but the Lord showed me that's not true.   When we look at the outer court in the wilderness, we see that many wicked men went into the outer court. In fact, wicked men even came near unto the holy place and some were even killed in the holy place because they went in. But no wickedness ever entered into the holy of holies because the high priest had to be in good shape with God or he'd better not go into the holy of holies. They even tied a rope onto the foot of the high priest so if he went in there and he wasn't walking in right covenant with God, they could drag out his body. They weren't going in after the high priest because you'd be smitten dead if you didn't walk in right covenant with God.   The tabernacle in the wilderness represented a Christian because God Almighty dwells in the holy of holies. We have examples in the Scriptures of wickedness coming into both the outer court and the holy place, but not into the holy of holies. God was showing me that in your holy of holies dwells the Spirit of God and only Jesus, Who is the High Priest, can go in there. By the way, ministers don't have a right to get into your holy of holies. They have to stay without. The One Who is the head of your being is the Lord, always the Lord. If a minister becomes your head, you become a disciple of him and you, in a way, put him in your holy of holies. That's dangerous for him and you because then he's between you and God. Remember from our example that wickedness did enter into both the outer court and the holy place.  Now here's what the Lord showed me about oppression and possession. Did you know that God seeks to possess you? He just comes from a different direction, that's all. He comes from your spirit seeking to possess your soul. Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. That's your walk. But the demons come in through the flesh and they also seek to possess your soul. They want to come into the holy place. They want to rule in the holy place because that's the control over your actions, that's the control over your thinking, that's the control over your life. They want to control your life.   But the fallacy of the view that the worldly church gives us is that oppression is without, possession is within. However, the demons can dwell in your flesh and as long as they're just in the flesh but not in the holy place, not in the soul, they're still in, they're just not in possession. Possession is when they reach into your soul. If you watch people who are demon-possessed, you'll see this happen. One moment they'll be totally normal but don't think the demon left. He hasn't left; he's still there. I've had this experience with Christians. Everybody who is led by the flesh is not led by the Holy Spirit and there can be Spirit-filled Christians who are led by the flesh. The flesh is made in the image of the devil and you're manifesting a son of the devil, if you walk after the flesh. But here's the point. If you walk after the flesh, you're opening yourself up to let the devil in.   You are the one who either permits or forbids. (Mat.16:19) I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Those demons can come into your flesh. If you give in to some sin, but what they want to do is reach into your soul. Your soul is your nature; it is the controlling factor of your natural life. When the demons reach into a person's soul, that's when everybody says that a person is possessed. But, you know what? They can back out of the soul into the flesh and the person will be relatively normal. Then they'll come in again; they'll manifest and they'll back out. We've seen people who look totally normal. Then, all of a sudden, when you're right in the middle of preaching the Gospel, demons manifest in these people and they start crying out. Why? Were they there all the time? Yes, they were there all the time. Did they leave the person? They never ever left the person; they were there all the time. So you can be oppressed as long as the demon is in the flesh, but when he reaches into your soul, then that is possession.   Who has a right to have demons cast out? Well, let me give you a few examples. First of all, what we have in the New Testament is Jesus dealing with His Covenant people, which was Israel. That was the type and shadow of what God does today. Jesus was dealing with Covenant people. He even said, “I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat.15:24). Who was He dealing with when He cast out demons? It was the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When the pagans came, such as in the instance of the Syro-phoenician woman, then Jesus said, “it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs” (Mat.15:26). Well, what was He talking about? He was saying that the lost have no right to God's provision. The biggest proof to me is my experience. The only time God ever let me cast demons out of a lost person I had to get permission to do it. You have to have permission to do it because you can destroy someone by casting demons out of them. The Bible even says they'll come back with seven worse. (Luk.11:26) Then goeth he, and taketh [to him] seven other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. So casting demons out of a lost person is not good business unless you have God's permission, since they have no right to God's provision. God's provision of deliverance and healing and other blessing is for Covenant people. We are Covenant people; they are not. They have no right to it. Don't try to give God's pearls to the swine (Matthew 7:6); they have no right to it. I'm going to prove it to you now from Scripture. (Mar.7:25) But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. (26) Now the woman was a Greek, a Syro-phoenician by race. And she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. (27) And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. He's calling casting out demons “the children's bread.” It's not for the world. No, it's only for the children.   Now not only did this woman's daughter have a demon, she also had a spirit of infirmity. We know this from the same story in Matthew. (Mat.15:28) … And her daughter was healed from that hour. So her daughter was healed at the same time that Jesus cast out the demon. The children's bread is deliverance from demons and healing in the body and all these things. Why? Jesus said that His Body is our bread. Were there any demons in Jesus' body? Was there any sickness in Jesus' body? The reconciliation was that He gave His body for your body. See, we have a right to have a holy, delivered body. We have this right. The world does not have this right. (Mar.7:26) … And she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. (27) And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. (28) But she answered and saith unto him, Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. (29) And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter. (30) And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the demon gone out. And in Matthew, it says she was healed.  So we can see as a revelation from this example by Jesus, that someone who is a Jew according to the flesh is not necessarily a Jew according to this New Covenant. Jews in this New Covenant are those who walk in the faith of Abraham. You can't recognize the Jew according to the flesh anymore; it's whether they are a believer or not. It's according to your faith or your unbelief as to whether you're grafted in or broken off (Romans 11) -totally according to your faith. If you have faith, you're a child. You have a right to the children's bread. The world has no right to the children's bread because they are not in covenant with God. Our part of the Covenant is faith. God's part is supply. We enter into it by faith and God enters into it with supply. It's kind of a lopsided covenant, but that's the way He designed it. We got a good deal and that's why it's called the Good News.   I'll show you a few more verses so we can see if this is the Covenant people or the world who's getting healed or delivered here. Now remember what Jesus believed. He showed you His doctrine, that He didn't come to the lost people, He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24). Why did He call them the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”? He called them that because, like sheep, Israel had gone astray. He wasn't talking about the world there. And just like sheep, Israel in this day has gone astray, too. The Lord told me one time, “I sent you to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He wasn't talking about physical Israel, He was talking about spiritual Israel, the lost sheep, because they are lambs who have lost their way. The Way is the Word. In fact, in the book of Acts, they called it the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22). It is a Way. We're supposed to be walking in the Way. And that doesn't mean in the way of God, it means in the Way of God. (Mat.8:16) And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word (Matthew is talking about the children here), and healed all that were sick: (Mat.8:17) that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.   He didn't say “the world's infirmities”; he said “our infirmities, and bare our diseases.” Who has a right to deliverance from demons and who has a right to healing? We do. They do not. In fact, you don't have a right to give it to them, except by the permission of God. I have asked God and received permission to cast a demon out of a lost person.   We did that recently in this house. God does give permission, but He doesn't have to. Here's the difference: God has to give deliverance to somebody who's in covenant because the Bible says it and He'd be a liar if He didn't. He has to give all the promises of God. The Bible says all the promises of God are “Yes.” (2Co.1:20) For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us. So I don't care when others say, sometimes God says “No,” but if it's concerning a promise, He says “Yes.” There is no promise in the Bible for deliverance for the world from a demon, even though we can ask God and He might give permission especially when they are affecting your life or another Christians life. That's totally mercy. But we have a guaranteed right of deliverance, we who are in covenant with God; we have a guaranteed right. The Bible says by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). It's not even a matter of convincing God; it's an accomplished fact on the cross. It's not as though God is going to change His mind. It's an accomplished fact on the cross that we were delivered. So, who's He casting these demons out of here, that He says is a fulfillment through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4)? If it's a fulfillment of Him taking away our infirmities, then He's talking about deliverance of Covenant people.   Let me give you another verse. When Jesus sent out His disciples, He limited them specifically as to where they were to go. Evangelization is to the world, but we're not talking about evangelization here, we're talking about dealing with “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mat.10:5) These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into [any] way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans. Samaritans were half-breeds. He's cutting out the half-breeds here. Or, a Samaritan also can be a pagan who's acting like a Christian because of how Samaria was populated. It was populated when God took away the northern 10 tribes and repopulated the area with pagans (2 Kings 17:24). And when the pagans in Samaria started dying because of the curses of the land (2 Kings 17:25), the prophet said, “Well, it's because they don't know the God of the land.” So then they brought Israelites in there to train these pagans about the God of the land (2 Kings 17:27). That means, in amongst the people of God, there are some half breeds. They've been trained in Christianity, they know all the lingo, but they're still pagans. I'm not saying God can't heal them, I'm just saying they're not Jews/Christians by nature. We need to have discernment and pay attention to what Jesus said. I've had the Lord tell me, “Don't lay hands on that person for healing.” I've had Him tell me and I thought they were Christians, but God just said don't do it. I don't know whether it was because they were in willful disobedience and they couldn't be healed because they were in rebellion against God or whether they weren't in covenant with God. I don't know. I don't have all the answers. I just know that God has told me not to do that before.   But God has healed nonbelievers and He does it for evangelistic reasons. What I'm saying is there's a difference, though. The difference is you have no promise and there's no guarantee. For that, you have to be led of the Spirit. But as a Christian walking by faith in God, repented up of your sins and so on and so forth, you're guaranteed to be healed, if you will stay in covenant by faith. Every one of us has to stay in covenant by our faith. That's what keeps us in covenant with God. If you don't have faith, you can't have that part of the Covenant. It doesn't matter that you're saved in another part. If you have sozo over here, it doesn't mean you have sozo over there. The Covenant is very big and the sozo is very big, but you might be able to enter into only parts of it because of your faith. We enter into as much as we can receive through our faith. (Mat.10:5) These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into [any] way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: (6) but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (7) And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (8) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give. He was saying, cast the demons out, but only cast the demons out of Israel. They have to be first because of the Covenant. We have another good example from the apostle Paul. (1Co.5:1) It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one [of you] hath his father's wife. (3) For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already as though I were present judged him that hath so wrought this thing, (4) in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, (5) to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Paul turned this man over to the devil for the destruction of his flesh. He used the devil to chasten this guy to bring him to repentance. You're probably going to waste a lot of breath trying to deliver that guy unless he repents.    Printer-friendly version     © 2017 UBM | Unleavened Bread Ministries. All rights reserved.    [ Fair Use Notice ]

Mark 4:35-41 to Mark 5:1-8   Jesus Calms the stormJesus has spent the whole of Ch 4 to this point explaining what the kingdom of God is like and speaking in parables to those listening and to the disciples - v9, v24Then we come into the story of the boat on the Sea of Galilee – and Jesus discovers just how much or how little the disciples have listened and understood!Jesus decides where they are going. He wants to cross to the non-Jewish side, inhabited by gentiles and the region of the Gerasene's.As they set out a fierce storm erupts from nowhere and the boat begins to take on water – Jesus remains asleep throughout the storm and they have to wake him as they fear for their lives – whatever they have or have not learnt through the teachings is forgotten and they panic and wake Jesus saying that “teacher don't you care that we are going to drown”?Phil Moore says thisJesus knows that his life will end on the cross at Calvary and not at the bottom of Lake Galilee and yet his disciples do not share his confidence! They have heard and forgotten – Jesus brought them into the storm to give them an opportunity to see and remember- which they fail! The wind and the waves have caused them to forget his identity and his mission. – He challenges them – where is your faith?They need to learn to handle storms before they can start to play their own part in his story.Identify with this? How do we cope in the storms of life? Do we forget Jesus identity and mission – his promises and his faithfulness?Tom Wright“Go on – wake Jesus up, pray to him in your fear and anger – but don't be surprised when he turns to you and asks “where is your faith?”Remember who he is:  Psalms 89:8-9, v11Jesus wakes and rebukes the wind and the waves, “Silence be still”. In the Greek he speaks two words which translated are “Shush. Be muzzled”. Is this storm is not just a normal storm but is in fact from the enemy? Jesus rebuking the wind and waves says the same words he uses when dealing with the enemy and his forces. Jesus does not need to rebuke his creation – it's his – he can just say “be still” and it will be.The enemy knows where Jesus is going (Ch 5) and what's going to happen when he gets there and will do anything to stop him.4:41 – The disciples5:5 – The demonsThe demons recognise Jesus who is revealed in all his power and authority in this story and they have to flee and the man is set free and in his right mind – it's a great story! He is King of all the earth – they had to obey, they had no choice! He even has to give them permission to enter the swine – they cannot just go – He is in control!Ephesians 1:19-22ALL things – creation, the wind and the waves, every scheme of the enemy, your life, your struggles, your work situation, your school situation, your finances, your job, your boss, your weaknesses, your sin and your health.Let's see and remember who Jesus is and the authority he has – in ALL things! It's all about FAITH. Faith in the storms,Jesus's  first two miracles in Ch 6 are about FAITH.The woman with the issue of blood – Jesus says “Daughter your faith has made you well” Jairus's daughter – She died because Jesus was delayed – Jesus says“Have faith – she is not dead but asleep.When the storms come Jesus wants us to have faith in him and trust him – he has got this!John Ortberg says this“Peace doesn't come from finding a lake with no storms: it comes from having Jesus in the boat with you through those storms”Questions1. Why do you think the disciples struggled to have faith whilst in the boat?2. What are some of the reasons we struggle when the storms of life hit us?3. If we don't have faith - what's the opposite?4. Why does the story about the demonised man help

Jesus and the Gerasene Demonic- Encounters - Naeem Fazal - June 4, 2023

Luke 4:31–37 Right from the beginning of his ministry, Jesus encountered the spirit of an unclean demon. Strangely, the demonized man asked Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us?” Luke 4:40–41 Jesus was able to cast out demons hour after hour. Apparently, this was a common affliction in this time and place. They recognized him and cried out, “You are the son of God,” but Jesus made them be quiet. Luke 8:1–2 Some people fell victim to the infestation of multiple demons at once. Luke 8:26–33 The Gerasene demoniac lived among the tombs, naked, crying out night and day, and cutting himself with stones. (See Mark 5:5.) This poor man had no peace, no community, and no future. In a moment, Jesus set him free. Luke 9:37–43 In this case, the demon caused convulsions and foaming at the mouth. Although the disciples couldn't cast it out, Jesus could. Luke 11:14–26 Demons are part of Satan's kingdom. After a spirit leaves his “house,” it can return with several others, making the final state of the person worse than the first. Acts 16:16–19 This spirit enabled a slave girl to tell fortunes. Paul had no problem taking authority and casting it out. Acts 19:11–17 11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Jesus as the Fulfillment of the Covenant | Luke 8:22-39 | Jesus calms the storm, Gerasene demoniac

Geography is one of the most undervalued aspects of Bible study. Todd Bolen joins us on the episode today and we talk about the importance of geography and how it impacted the lives of those who lived during Bible times and continues to have relevance to Israel even today. We talk about how biblical stories have greater depth and clarity when we understand geographical and cultural elements. Todd Bolen's TMU Profile: https://www.masters.edu/faculty_staff_bio/todd-bolen/ Todd Bolen's Bible Places Website: https://www.bibleplaces.com/ Lexham Geographic Commentaries: https://lexhampress.com/product/186411/lexham-geographic-commentaries Time Stamps: 00:00 Introduction 1:20 Todd Introduces Himself 3:05 Background to Bibleplaces.com 6:30 How Does Todd Motivate Students to Care about Geography? 10:30 How Does Geography Impact the Ancient Israelite? 16:17 What are some Key Geographical Locations in Israel? 19:40 Are There Key Locations that Carry Religious Significance? 23:33 How do Archaeologists Determine Where an Ancient City Was? 32:41 What are some Interesting Biblical Examples of Geography in Scripture? 35:00 The Location of Nob 38:50 Esther and the City of Susa 43:16 Acts 12 and the Death of Herod Agrippa I 46:32 The Deliverance of the Demoniac in Mark 5 (in Gerasene or Gaderenes?) 53:03 The Connection between Geography and Modern Israel Life 1:00:50 How Can We Pursue a Further Study in Biblical Geography? 1:05:52 Conclusion If you have found the podcast helpful, consider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leaving a review on Itunes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠rating it on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can also find ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Bible Sojourner on Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Consider passing any episodes you have found helpful to a friend. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petergoeman.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information on the podcast or blog.

Geography is one of the most undervalued aspects of Bible study. Todd Bolen joins us on the episode today and we talk about the importance of geography and how it impacted the lives of those who lived during Bible times and continues to have relevance to Israel even today. We talk about how biblical stories have greater depth and clarity when we understand geographical and cultural elements. Todd Bolen's TMU Profile: https://www.masters.edu/faculty_staff_bio/todd-bolen/ Todd Bolen's Bible Places Website: https://www.bibleplaces.com/ Lexham Geographic Commentaries: https://lexhampress.com/product/186411/lexham-geographic-commentaries Time Stamps: 00:00 Introduction 1:20 Todd Introduces Himself 3:05 Background to Bibleplaces.com 6:30 How Does Todd Motivate Students to Care about Geography? 10:30 How Does Geography Impact the Ancient Israelite? 16:17 What are some Key Geographical Locations in Israel? 19:40 Are There Key Locations that Carry Religious Significance? 23:33 How do Archaeologists Determine Where an Ancient City Was? 32:41 What are some Interesting Biblical Examples of Geography in Scripture? 35:00 The Location of Nob 38:50 Esther and the City of Susa 43:16 Acts 12 and the Death of Herod Agrippa I 46:32 The Deliverance of the Demoniac in Mark 5 (in Gerasene or Gaderenes?) 53:03 The Connection between Geography and Modern Israel Life 1:00:50 How Can We Pursue a Further Study in Biblical Geography? 1:05:52 Conclusion If you have found the podcast helpful, consider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leaving a review on Itunes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠rating it on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can also find ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Bible Sojourner on Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Consider passing any episodes you have found helpful to a friend. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petergoeman.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information on the podcast or blog.

Jesus is the God of the before and after. He takes all who are willing and changes them from the inside out. Nobody is ever out of His reach. The demon possessed man at Gerasene was out of the reach of people, but Jesus restored his home, his voice, his clothing and his well being.

Jesus and The Gerasene Demonic - Encounters - Naeem Fazal- June 4, 2023

Sarah talks about the New Testament Lectionary texts for the week of June 19, 2016. She starts with Galatians 3:23-29 and looks at Paul's discussion on the law, faith, and grace. She then moves to the Gospel text for the week: Luke 8:26-39, which is a story of Jesus and a man in Gerasene who is plagued with many demons. Sarah looks at the story through the lens of identity and what it meant for the man to be healed and given back the identity which had been taken from him. Enjoy this rebroadcast of a previous episode. If you enjoyed this episode, follow and subscribe to the show: you can find us on iTunes or on any app that carries podcasts as well as on YouTube. Please remember to subscribe and give us a nice review. This way you'll always be among the first to get the latest GSMC Bible Study Podcasts. We would like to thank our Sponsor: GSMC Podcast Network Advertise with Us: http://www.gsmcpodcast.com/advertise-with-us.html Website: http://www.gsmcpodcast.com/bible-study.html Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gsmc-bible-study-podcast/id1123845501 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF8Qial15ufqizsqY6kHkWI1EaK2nWjvX Twitter: https://twitter.com/GSMC_BibleStudy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GSMCBibleStudy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gsmc_biblestudy/ Disclaimer: The views expressed on the GSMC Bible Study Podcast are for entertainment purposes only. Reproduction, copying, or redistribution of The GSMC Bible Study Podcast without the express written consent of Golden State Media Concepts LLC is prohibited.

Patrick takes us with Jesus to visit the Gerasene man

Luke Proctor preaches on Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac, challenging us to allow Jesus to break our chains of our past stories and engage in the redefinition of story that Jesus offers. What chains can Jesus break in your life? How might your story be transformed by Jesus?

Jesus forgives, do you know him? Pharisee did not recognize who Jesus was. Luke 7:36-50 Anointing by the sinful woman. "... Therefore, I tell you, her sins have been forgiven - for she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." The demons know who HE is. Demon-possessed in Gerasene. Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39 "When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, 'what do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God you won't torture me!'" He loves you, you are worthy of his love! Natalie Grant - Clean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idm7RlwrZVw Be blessed and encouraged!

IN THIS PODCAST: In this podcast, the reaction of King David to the death of his son Absalom is contrasted to the reaction of the villagers to the liberation of the Gerasene demoniac in the Gospel. Do we instinctively react with fear like the villagers to unexpected situations in our lives? OR, like King David, do we ask the question “Where is God in this situation?” - The answer to this question can help us to respond to situations with greater wisdom and calmness. This homily was preached on the passage from Mk 5:1-20 by Rev.Fr. Charles V, CSsR, on 31st  Jan. 2022. Let us reflect and pray to the Lord

Every Gospel displays the power of Christ so that we will be in awe of our great Lord and Savior. Our passage this morning accomplishes just that. In converting the Gerasene demoniac, Jesus demonstrates that there are three conditions in the framework of salvation: a hopeless condition that leads to a dramatic conversion, which then results in a commission to proclaim the gospel.

Mark 5:1-20 Pastor Bear Morton Every Gospel displays the power of Christ so that we will be in awe of our great Lord and Savior. Our passage this morning accomplishes just that. In converting the Gerasene demoniac, Jesus demonstrates that there are three conditions in the framework of salvation: a hopeless condition that leads to a dramatic conversion, which then results in a commission to proclaim the gospel.

When I was in my twenties, I wanted to be a fiction author. The germ for a story idea would jump into my head, through some observation, and then would multiply and merge with other broodings and books I'd been reading. Hopefully, you are trying to go to sleep right now, as perhaps this episode will take you there, as it's going to be a long one. I'm going to summarize a story idea that I never wrote. The germ of this story popped into my head at the grocery store when I observed an elderly woman and a young businesswoman approach a fully stocked banana stand at the same time. That was it. Here's the short version of a story called The Fountain of Youth.A young businesswoman is rushing about to collect the items on her grocery list, while at the same time, in the same store, a thin, old woman, hunched over and unattractive, rides in a mobile cart. They both shop the produce aisle, and the elderly woman is slowly driving her cart toward a table that holds the bananas. Only a single bunch of green bananas remains. The young woman is swinging her basket, grabbing peppers and lettuce, while chatting on her phone. Before the old woman reaches the table, the young woman swoops over to the banana table and grabs the last bunch of bananas, unaware that the old woman is reaching for it. The old woman says, “Excuse me, but could I have a few of those bananas?” The young woman at first ignores her due to her phone conversation, but the old woman keeps talking. Annoyed, the young woman pauses her phone call to interact with the old woman, and upon hearing her request for the bananas, the young woman considers her strict diet of smoothies, her intermittent fasting plan, and her rigid exercise schedule and says, “No, I'm sorry.” The old woman pleads, “I can only get a ride to the store twice a week and I'm out of bananas, and my doctor recommends them for my heart health.” Then she coughs and wipes her mouth with a flannel shirt sleeve, which causes the young woman to recoil. The young woman cannot find the charity to give the old woman any of the green bananas and tells her, “Sorry, I got here first. Better luck next time.” She puts the phone back to her ear and attempts to resume the conversation with her friend, but she hears a response from the old woman. The young woman puts the phone down again. She can sense the old woman has said something rude. She asks, “I'm sorry, but what did you say? I didn't hear you.”The old woman says, “I said, may you age with those bananas.” The young woman is stunned at first, but then laughs out loud, and with condescension says to the poor woman, “You are adorable. Pathetic, but adorable.” And with that the two women part ways. The young woman drives home in her BMW 3-Series and doesn't think about the comment any further. She hits the gym, engages in some hot sex with her manscaped boyfriend who lives with her, and ends the day watching a TV show while perfecting her presentation for work. Over the next few days, she eats a few of the bananas, which have now turned golden yellow. Everything in her life is perfect. But five days after the interaction at the grocery store, she is in the bathroom and notices a spot on her hand that she has never seen before, a small brown spot, slightly irregular in shape, and she makes a mental note of it but rushes off to work. The following day she goes for a run in the hot sun with her hairless boyfriend, and they talk about family and kids briefly but veer off into social issues and political problems that face the future of the world. When she arrives home, her boyfriend says to her, “Wow, look at those freckles! It's like they just appeared on your nose and cheeks.” She has never had freckles, and doesn't believe him until she goes to shower and looks in the mirror. Her face now has freckles. Very normal freckles, but unexpected freckles that were unplanned and unwanted. Then she suddenly remembers the little spot on her hand, and notices that it has grown ever so slightly. In a scoff, she remembers the bananas. She remembers the comment from the old woman, but laughs nervously, and while showering she walks out of the bathroom dripping in her towel to inspect the bananas on the counter. One of the bananas has begun to show spots. The next day the spot on her hand has grown splotchy, and she is no longer laughing but considering the possibility that the old woman has somehow cursed her. She begins to find ways to preserve the bananas, first trying to keep them at an exact temperature, but eventually finding so many spots forming that she has to freeze them, and her skin becomes more blotted. She attempts to find the old woman at the grocery store, returning at the same time each day but never meets her. A doctor's visit diagnoses her with “Bronzing,” and she begins seeing a dermatologist and two separate skin specialists. Her obsession with preserving her youth becomes maniacal, as she feels her destiny is now somehow linked to the bananas. After a year, a succession of maddening events causes her to unravel. Her boyfriend's mother asks innocently about potential grandchildren. Feeling badgered, the young woman admits she does not want children due to the effect on a woman's body and alludes to a “miscarriage” in her past that creates a rift with her boyfriend. He breaks up with her, and soon her friends drift away into family life. She has a horrible scare when her mother housesits for her while she is away on a business trip. From the airplane, after landing, she calls her mother and amid the obnoxious sounds of screaming infant on the plane, her mother tells her that she is “making banana bread with two of the frozen bananas,” leading to a frantic freakout on the airplane that nearly gets her arrested. She drives home in a panic, unloading her anger and long held resentments against her mother, while fanning the banana bread and wrapping it in plastic. A falling out between mother and daughter happens that is never again healed. The years begin to pass by and she maintains a youthful look, managing the skin condition with great care and vigilance. She spends large amounts of her earnings on skin-care and aging products. As she enters her fifties, she is still spending most of her time with twenty to thirty year olds. Her career soars and by the age of fifty-five she moves into the role of Vice President of People Operations. Fast forward: she is sitting alone in a one bedroom apartment at age seventy-five, her lips and face full of botox, with bottles of prescriptions and hormones spread out on a coffee table. She is mutilated by plastic surgeries, wearing excess makeup, and living on shakes, powders, and supplements. Childless and friendless, with few family connections remaining, in her living room chair she scrolls on her phone, researching therapeutic cloning techniques. She sets down her phone and gets out of the chair, to sit on the floor to do her daily meditation and mindful breathing. In the silence, an electric hum from the corner of the room permeates the air, but somehow this sound comforts her. The soft buzzing comes from a special freezer, with a backup battery. In the corner of the room is a mini-freezer that holds the last remaining moldy and cursed banana, frozen and sealed in extreme cold. She smiles in her meditation, proud that she has proved the old woman wrong, and has preserved her youth. The end.I never wrote the full story. I thought about the story for days until I could see the story unfold to where it wanted to take me, or where I wanted to take it. Sometimes I'm not sure how the flow happens. This is the strange thing that happens once you start writing. If the urge to “be a writer” bites you, then you will start writing stories and you will spend a lot of time thinking about stories you want to write. The urge came to me in 1999 when I started typing out poems and short stories. I remember reading books and feeling disappointed in the plot or characters and decided that perhaps I could write better than those authors. In 2000, I went for a run one day and decided halfway through that I needed to return home to my house and begin writing, and I ran home with urgency and did just that. Thus began an obsession around writing. Then I began to realize that writing stories is more difficult than I thought, but the urge to produce and create consumed my days and nights. This continued for about fifteen years.Thinking of stories is one thing. Writing them in a compelling way is far more difficult. The idea for a story is the simple part, because many people have ideas for stories and novels floating around in their heads. Consider how many people have great business ideas or inventions in their mind, but cannot or have not put them into physical form. With stories, it's the same. To flesh out and write the story is difficult because it moves from being a dream into a grueling task, like when you go from thinking about getting in shape to actually joining a gym or counting calories. It's much easier to imagine a result than to work for it, because the work is neither glamorous nor easy. A significant amount of time is needed to write the actual stories. Writing requires dedication and resolve, but when I was writing and doing the work, I felt compelled to get the story out, to the point that I needed to get it out of my brain and onto paper or computer screen. This same notion began anew once I found the urge to do marathons and triathlons. I needed to get out and run or bike. The need felt unstoppable because of the desire for the goal of completing the upcoming race to the best of my ability. Both writing and racing brought about this mania. The story just had to be written, making it almost like a lust, or a sickness. This baby had to be born. Creative desires can be like any other addiction. Watch what happens to someone who is clearly addicted to their phone if he or she cannot find it. The phone-addict will begin to get antsy and squirm, and start looking, searching, until they get irritated and cannot live in their skin until the phone is found. Or think of a regular marijauna user or daily drinker you know who is “not addicted” but turns into a completely different person if their drug is taken away. They assure you that they can quit any time that they want to, but for some reason never do, because they actually cannot. The sickness demands the underlying need to be fulfilled. While nowhere as dramatic, this urge to write and “get the story out of my head” reminded me of a story about Caravaggio, the great Italian painter, while he was working on the Raising of Lazarus. Whether or not true, the tale reports that Caravaggio had a dead body exhumed for the painting, and told two of his models to hold the dead body so he could paint it. When they objected, he pulled out his knife and told them to stand still or he would make them just like the corpse they were holding. Clearly, this level of obsession shows that he had to get this painting out of his system, since he was willing to kill (and dig up bodies) in order to get the picture out of his head and onto the canvas.What's interesting is the urge to write can become an addiction, but as a creative pursuit never seemed like a problem. Oddly enough, when I talked to hunters, they would describe a similar “sickness” - a need to get into the woods, to be in nature in pursuit of a deer or a turkey or other small game. This description was strangely like the need to write or drink or smoke. There's a common thread in all of them. Initially, in those conversations I could not relate to hunters at all, but when I considered my own need to find a silent library to flesh out story ideas or to immerse myself in reading, I think my need for that refuge was not different from a fisherman seeking a quiet trout stream or a hunter hiking into a valley floor. Although hunting is shunned by much of modern society, the hunter feels and connects to something deep and visceral in our nature. The hunter is seeking what the artist or drunkard is seeking. What are we all after? We are searching for paradise. We are seeking something that is good, true, and beautiful, but with different ideas about what that means and how to obtain it. Everyone is after those things, but some are unaware of why and if the “sickness” is not driven by the right motives, the pursuit becomes ugly. Some hunters are just out for blood. Some artists just want fame. Drunks (that are not like ordinary, calm drinkers) are seeking a direct escape to heaven, without the work of creating or capturing. Drunks and drug users want to take the elevator, not the stairs. At the root of our pursuits is the desire to reach something higher, because those three nouns - the good, the true, and the beautiful - are the only things that will ultimately satisfy us. But in our pursuit of these three things we can easily mashup temptations, distractions, and pride with that purity. The real reason hunters are hunting at all is to find meaning in their life, to experience fellowship with other men, to get approval from a group, to connect to their ancient instincts, and to stand in awe of nature and creation. I am not a hunter, but what I see in hunting is a kind of sacrifice and thanksgiving. While writing a story is creative, and hunting is for killing, there are curious parallels to the passion guiding both pursuits. To some degree, the published book is not unlike the trophy deer. In the end the book sits on the shelf, and the stuffed animal is displayed on the wall. The same happens with diplomas and exotic photos from vacations or medals from military service or even private memories of sexual conquests. We are chasing a desire that is difficult to describe, but we want to display it and let it be seen, to make a name for ourselves, to feel worthy, to amass a list of accolades that will in the end be mere phrases in our obituary as the world continues to turn without us. (I have to resist the urge to dive into the Tower of Babel story, but it's so relevant to this.) The banana story is about clinging to something, to a dream or idea, to a concept or want, and expecting that dream or fantasy to bring fulfillment. For the woman in the story, it's youth. For me, it was writing and being considered smart or creative. This idea of sacrificing your time, money, and energy to save your most beloved thing, is not a new story. I recall choosing to give up friendships and social gatherings in order to read or write, believing that the creation I was working on would bring fulfillment. I felt that for anyone to succeed or reach a goal that everything must be sacrificed. Marriage, children, socializing, weekends, nights, television, dining out, running errands, folding laundry - those things were for others, for those without a “noble” pursuit that I had. Full of myself, I was like Leona Helmsley when she said that “Only the little people pay taxes.” My inflated self wanted to believe in my invented mission. When pride of self takes over the mind, everyone else and everything else become “little” compared to the dream. Whenever it felt like the goal of writing the great novel was getting further away I would isolate with books or a laptop. “Wherever your treasure lies there will your heart be.” Thus I was willing to forego friendship and fellowship to be alone with the imaginary treasure. Unfortunately, it took years to realize that the treasure was actually just a warning light. The young woman in the story clinging to her youth is just a metaphor for my own obsession from age twenty to thirty to be “a writer.” What I didn't know is that crossroads would find me at three places in my life: marriage, children, and addiction. The avoidance to commitment to anything beyond my goals had to be shattered. But it didn't happen all at once. I still clung to the dream and goal of writing even after marriage and kids, which means my treasure was still in the wrong place. I was keeping things together, but when you have one foot in the fantasy world, the commitment to real relationships cracks. I could publicly declare myself as committed, but privately hedge my bets. But thankfully there was a day I recall sitting in a cubicle and realizing my future, where I could have a wife and family and dog, or I could remain alone and possibly get a book or two published. This realization changed my life, and I don't know how else to describe it except that there was a kind of guidance happening on that day, as I recall the cubical and the lighting and the place of business where it happened. Whether it was a guardian angel or good orderly direction or just plain sense clocking in for duty, I am grateful for that startling jolt, because it meant the first step away from my “self.” The goal of a quiet house with two or three books on a shelf suddenly seemed selfish and even foolish. At the same time I relished the idea of being like one of those lonely scholars or curmudgeonly writers who pursue their craft with such a rage to master it that they let their obsession rule their days. I worried that time would pass and that the creative years were short. I knew that the high energy of my early twenties would fade, as I saw my co-workers in their forties and fifties who had dreams of pontoons, cabins, and retirement. The evidence of creative atrophy was all around me in programmers whose white-hot urge to invent had burned down to the wick. Discussions of 401K and TV shows replaced the intensity of youth. I was judging them all, yes, but I was most often judging them for what aging and family life had seemed to strain out of them. They seemed like decaf coffee beans, washed out, with very few milligrams of caffeine left in them (which explains why so many of us drink so much coffee as we get older). I felt that two years in my twenties had to be worth twenty years of the old, tired, expired later years. What I failed to see is that my reckless living in my twenties was less fulfilling than what these middle-aged mothers and fathers felt about their own lives. They had raised families and done the long work of putting food on the table and doing late-night math homework and attending numerous music or sports activities and essentially giving up their goals to bring another to successful adulthood in the world. These fuddyduddies, who I thought had done so little, had done more than my imagined solitary writer would ever accomplish. That was the temptation that I yearned after: youth and fame. This was stoked by reading biographies of writers, which I treated like hagiographies. But the writers I admired were not like the saints, not at all. A misguided admiration of Hemingway and London and Fitzgerald only helped me justify alcohol abuse as if it were a virtue, and made it a sacrificial offering to creativity. If I was destroying myself, it was for the creative act. If madness was the price for creative grace, I was willing to sign my life for that loan. In fact, I sought out writers that were known drunkards, thinking that those authors had more depth, when in reality many of them wrote completely forgettable books. This is the temptation I accepted, as drinking and writing seemed like fitting accomplices. The urge to create is the germ, but piggybacking very closely on that positive goal is the fungus of desire for fame and approval. Sometimes I wonder what comes first - the desire to create, or the desire to be noticed, like a chicken-and-egg scenario. I think the “desire to be noticed” came first, because the desire to be noticed is really a desire to be loved. Thus in some cases the desire to create is a fig leaf we wear to mask the desire for love. We want to be noticed, because we think it will make us loved and respected. So what I really wanted was a stamp of approval for my behavior, but way underneath that was a desire for appreciation, stacked under layers of other manure and dirt. The manifestation of the need for love became visible in the pursuit of writing, but the inability to stop drinking once I started was the cry for help from underneath the pile of garbage. I wasn't interested in tattoos or piercings or coloring my hair or weird sex. We have different cries for help, and mine was just drinking. I convinced myself that heavy drinking was a righteous burden of all writers. See the trick? Did you catch it? A swap happened. The need for approval and love gets transplanted with some strange idea like this. I felt that drinking hard was the cross that writers must bear, and even something to be proud of. Perhaps this desire to drink guided me toward writing in the first place so that I could justify drinking, since writers and artists get a free pass for their madness. Writers who were not alcoholics, I felt, lacked the “gift.” Oddly enough, drinking is a cross to bear, not a gift, but when dealt with it ends up becoming a gift. What shocked me in the end is that these crosses can become a gift. This is why so many recovering addicts and alcoholics introduce themselves at recovery meetings saying, “I'm Jane, a grateful addict,” or “I'm Joe, a grateful alcoholic.” They realized when they turned back to God that the cross they took up was the greatest gift they ever received because it is the exact thing that forced them to change. How upside down we are once we re-name the vice as a virtue. This can be observed in our world all the time. We “flip the script,” to quote the TV show Cobra Kai, and make our fig leaf the identity of our life. I don't want to dive into the character of Hawk from Cobra Kai, but his “flipping the script” is his journey into his vice, which kills his virtue, until he returns to his true self and flips things back to right-side-up. The very thing that we are using to cover our nakedness, our fear, our feeling of inadequacy is what we need to remove in order to be healed. The wound hides beneath the vice and until it is exposed, there can be no healing. How can a physician heal something that cannot be seen? Cue up the Jesus words! (you knew it was coming):The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:11-12)The whole solution is right in those two verses. We want to turn our “sacrifice” into a virtue. Jesus says, “No, I don't want sacrifices, especially not bad sacrifices. No, I want your whole life. Now show me the wound!” He's practically shouting it like Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire. “Show me the wound, Jerry!” These verses from Matthew make Jesus the undefeated and defending champion of both religion and psychiatry for two thousand years. I remember taking a class called “The Psychology of Adjustment” in college and not once did that textbook mention faith as a possible solution to problems “adjusting” to change. What a shame, since it could have been a short class. I can see the need to avoid mentioning this, since it might put a large amount of psychology majors out of work, which is already an issue for a field that provides most of our nation's baristas. Jesus is a bigger threat to the therapy industry than self-driving trucks is to the logistics industry. Who needs truckers if can trucks drive themselves? Who needs expensive therapy when you can read Matthew and talk about it with others for free? Yes, I'm simplifying and generalizing to make an editorial. I also empathize with psychology majors as I pursued computer science and English majors, and only one of those fields is sought after for employment. But it cannot be denied that faith has been shoved into a corner by medicine, by our schools, by government, and most of all by our media, yet the open secret is that faith can be, without a doubt, a proper and effective cure for many mental issues. The head-scratchers in the media wonder why suicide rates have increased and depression is at an all-time high, while church attendance and affiliation plummet. The cry goes out daily to do more for mental health, while we ostracize people of faith like lepers to the fringe of society. The gift of faith heals, but it is exactly that: it is a gift. This odd thing called faith can be more effective than a lifetime of depression pills or affirming therapy, and it costs nothing. But, it's not so simple. It cannot be prescribed or ingested or bought or sold. There is no insurance needed for it. Unfortunately, people can walk the corridors of modern pharma and therapy for years and not once hear that there is another way, but honestly even if they are told, they may not “hear” it because the time has not arrived for the hearer's ears to be open yet. The timing varies for each person. So I understand why it's not talked about, but it's a shame because many people would benefit. Therapy is a modern version of “faith-healing,” but the faith must be in the techniques and drugs, not in God. The faith must be in the science and the credentials on the wall. The efficacy of the therapy is measured and studied to find improvements. All of this is great. But there's something fundamentally missing from this equation. Science was never intended to replace faith or morality, because those are not parts of the observable and testable universe. You can see the sacred being replaced with science, but it's not the right tool. The trend today is moving toward a merger of science and morality, which will ruin science. Just like religion merging with state power ruins religion, the same will happen to science. For those not paying attention, the Soviet Union and China have already done this experiment and it doesn't end well. Papers and research must conform to party doctrine, making it a leap of faith, not a study of nature. Worse, if you put morality and faith into the halls of state power, brace yourself for bad weather. We're all talking about mental health today, constantly, as if mental problems just started happening in recent history. The only cure offered comes in the form of pharmaceuticals and paid therapy. The healings that Jesus does in the Gospels are mostly related to mental health. Yes, there are the skin healings of the many lepers and the withered hand and the woman who bled for many years and re-attaching the Roman's ear (ok, so there are a lot of physical healings), but the majority of his healings are the same soul-wracking mental problems that we have today. When it says he “healed many people that day,” those are just the ordinary everyday miracles that he did, while the bigger miracles get a full telling, like raising Lazarus from the dead or restoring the paralyzed man's legs or healing blindness. These ordinary “healings” don't only happen in the pages of the Gospels. You can witness them happening today in recovery meetings, for all kinds of mental health issues, and these are attributed to a Higher Power, to God. This isn't like the TV evangelist pulling some audience plant on-stage so that he can heal a man so that you wire him a check. This is happening in back-rooms of office buildings and churches and government centers, where no one is watching, where the smell of burnt coffee acts as the incense, and the liturgy consists of the Serenity Prayer and the Lord's Prayer with real, open honesty in between. This can be witnessed right now in a meeting in your own town. The wildest thing about the healings that Jesus performs is that I have seen these very things occur in people, in real-time, in the 21st century. Even for myself, for all the times I tried to quit drinking, through willpower or using science or techniques, none of those things worked. Nothing changed until I asked for God's help and started to pray. Full stop. Other people I have known, they have seemed so far gone that there was no hope for restoration, much like the Gospel stories of the Gerasene demoniac or the boy with an unclean spirit. Yet they get clear and clean, and a year passes and they are still clean. Then another year, and another, and they are bright-eyed and flourishing. There are Mary Magdalenes among us. There are former demoniacs walking around in our midst. These souls are everywhere, rubbing shoulders with you, interacting with you, but you don't see them because they are healed and restored.As I've said before, I discarded pills when I turned back to God and I am extremely doubtful that I ever needed them in the first place. Had I followed the steps prescribed by the physician in Matthew 9:11-12 and from the doctor named Luke, I might have learned this sooner. People that don't believe in miracles scoff at tales of healing unless a double-blind study was used, and peer-reviewed papers support the evidence. But you can meet people who have restored their mind, body, and soul through friendship with Jesus. As for the re-attachment of the Roman's ear, I understand the difficulty for some to believe in stories like that, but given the incredible real-life healings I have seen, I'm willing to say, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Nothing is impossible for God, and if Jesus could multiply bread and fish, I doubt that surgery presented much of a challenge for him.So in living in my world of the flipped script, I felt that alcohol made for authenticity. “In wine, there is truth”; In vino, veritas. Truth had to be conjured, raised up from within by being uninhibited, so that I could speak like a jester before a king. Liquor was the secret potion to unlock the hidden “truth” within. The wild and awful alcoholic lives of the writers I admired seemed to be the required gate fee for entry into greatness, as the wise fools, I thought, were the ones that must hold up the mirror to society. Oh, the lies we can tell ourselves. This is not the sound of one hand clapping, this is the sound of one hand slapping its own face. In reality most of the writers I admired lived terrible lives. They burned bridges constantly. They had multiple marriages that fell apart in dramatic fashion. They ended their lives in suicide or slow death by addiction. But they reached their goal. Yes, they got what they wanted. They had their treasure, a skinny volume or two on their bookshelf with their name printed on the spine. Did that make them happy in the end? Did it fulfill them? I doubt it made any of them happy or content. It probably fed their pride, making the dragon even bigger. This is why my woman and her cursed bananas had to be a caricature in the end. I thought a woman character would work best for the story because I could juxtapose her youth, beauty, and vigor against a twisted gargoylish solitude in the final scene. I wanted to display the inside, unseen, gnarled experience of misguided pursuit on her character. A male character would have required a different path, but I could have done the same story with a male bodybuilder or womanizer who has his trophies gathering dust on a shelf, and the notches in his headboard being reminders of many broken relationships. In the closing scene, he could have been a freakish, wrinkled body sitting hulking and damaged in a recliner, and for added effect I would have him spray tanning his orange arms while he sipped from a cocktail of branch chain amino acids and collagen peptides. Anyone who has felt a sense of transcendence, or the temporary “greatness” we all get to feel on occasion, yearns to recreate the moment. If you can't experience it again, then you may feel like a “one hit wonder” or “a flash in the pan” or “a fluke” or “an intellectual lightweight” or whatever else the outer doubters and inner critic can hurl at you. Ex-athletes have a rough adjustment to the world because they peak so young. Likewise, an inventor whose idea catches on must try to invent again to catch lightning in a bottle a second time. An artist who catches the eye of a patron must continue producing desirable work. These blessings of success can become a curse, unless you surrender the ego. As life teaches us all, the two great tests we will face are success and failure, and success is sometimes the more difficult test. To give up a dream may seem like defeat. But to surrender, which took years and stages to happen for me, led me to the greatest elevation I could have hoped for or ever imagined. Every phase where I had to make a choice to chop away at the false god of writing and imagined glory led to the ultimate death of that idol. It's like St. Boniface cutting down the oak tree that the pagans worshiped. If you can chop down a god, then that's a false god. I always thought it was incredibly rude of Boniface to cut the tree down, but in reality, what was he doing? He showed them the absurdity of a tree as a god. He exposed the false treasure. To have a false treasure revealed as fool's gold is the greatest gift to give someone, even if it initially enrages them. People only get mad at the death of false gods because they are still in denial about its value. If a man is never told or shown that what he worships is phony, he will find out in the worst way of all when he tries to cash it in at the end. Like Narcissus, he will keep gazing into that illusion right until his death. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

Sermon for Sunday, June 19, 2022 Second Sunday in Pentecost Reading: Luke 8:26-39 Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave — too much change, too fast, and they were scared. (Verse 37)

Join us for worship from Seal Church. A copy of the service sheet can be found on the church website. www.sealpeterandpaul.com Preacher: Canon Anne Le Bas Image: The Gerasene Demoniac: Illustration from medieval manuscript. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcism_of_the_Gerasene_demoniac#/media/File:Ottheinrich_Folio051r_Mc5A.jpg Today's hymn sung by St Martins in the Fields is: Thou whose almighty word --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anne-le-bas/message

The story of Jesus' exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac lands us directly into the territory of the deep spiritual forces at work in our world, forces which operate on the personal level and that of whole communities, institutions, and nations, and which interact in complex ways between all these. It invites us to consider our own spiritual condition, the spirituality of the place or places to which we belong, and those people and places who may be demonised by us, our community and our society, and provokes us to turn ourselves around and, in a spirit of thankfulness, to drive all evil away. A talk for The First Sunday after Trinity , 19 June 2022. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

As Jesus stepped onto the shores of the country of the Gerasene's he was greeted by a man afflicted and lost. This moment leads us to where once again death is met by life, dark is overcome by light, and the old makes way for the new. As storied people we love to see heroes overcome villains, the meek defeat the mighty, and the broken be restored. We are all storytellers, and each of our lives tells a story, the question is what story are you telling?

This week Faith To Go formation team members David Tremaine, Charlette Preslar, and special guest the Rev. Daniel McMillan discuss the story of Jesus casting out demons from the Gerasene demoniac and what it means for our lives today. Make sure to go check out all of this week's Faith To Go resource offerings for personal reflection, family discussion, and small group conversation at www.myfaithtogo.orgRemember to get in contact with us!Email: faithtogo@edsd.orgVoicemail: 562-384-7638Instagram: @faithtogoWebsite: www.myfaithtogo.org

In this episode, we discuss the readings for Proper 7 (Year C in the lectionary cycle): Luke 8:26-39; Galatians 3:23-29; Psalm 42-43; 1 Kings 19:1-15.We explore Jesus' encounter with the Gerasene demoniac - the destitution of his life and the restoration Jesus brings, Paul's repeated use of the theme of being clothed with Christ, the emotional honesty of the Psalms of lament, and the dramatic story of Elijah's...burnout? need for a snack and a nap? searching for the Lord? Our outro music is an original song by our friend Dcn. Jeremiah Webster, a poet and professor whose giftedness is rivaled by his humbleness. You can find his published works, including After So Many Fires, with a quick Google.

NOTES AND COMMENTARY Gospel Reading: Luke 8:26-39 The Gerasene and the pigs Second Reading: 1 Kings 19:1-15 Elijah hears God in the quiet Epistle Reading: Galatians 3:23-29 neither Jew nor Greek Special Guest Co-Host: Terrell Carter Terrell Carter, DMin, is a minister, nonprofit executive, and educator residing in St. Louis, MO. For 30 years, he has filled multiple positions in traditional church contexts, including pastor. In addition to his ministry experience, Terrell has served three community development corporations as executive director. He has also held various positions within higher education, including as professor and vice president. He regularly contributes to the broader church life through his writings, which include multiple books and monthly columns in faith-based and secular sources. 

Today's Reading: Luke 11:14-28Daily Lectionary: Genesis 27:30-45; 28:10-22; Mark 9:1-13 "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils." (Luke 11:21-22) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. "He is possessed by Beelzebub and by the prince of demons he casts out demons" (Mark 3:22). It's the ultimate Old Testament insult: If you don't like what someone says, call ‘em the devil. In the Old Testament Beelzebub was a Caananite god, the lord of the flies, the god of dung. A crass euphemism for the ruler of death. Eventually it became another name for Satan. The Scribes are accusing Jesus of being in league with the devil, like in an old country song. Problem is, that's most illogical. Divided kingdoms don't stand. Divided houses fall. If Satan is actually opposed to himself, then his days are over.Jesus didn't join the devil's ranks. He came to defeat the devil. And it's a good thing He did. Like Adam and Eve, we're guilty of treason. "Fast bound in Satan's chains we lay" ("Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice" LSB 556, st.2). That's why Jesus, the rightful King, lands in enemy occupied territory. Jesus comes for you. To your rescue. To save you. It's a great invasion, and Bethlehem is the beachhead. The wilderness temptation is a key battleground and skirmishes break out all over. Demons are cast out in Capernaum, Galilee, and Gerasene. Jesus is on the move, headed toward Jerusalem and the Cross, the last battle.Jesus dies the same way He is born: in humility and utter helplessness. "He must be crazy. So weak. How foolish," the world cries out. But the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest men. And the weakness of God is stronger than both men and the devil. So, this is Jesus' battle plan: "Bind the strong man" and plunder his goods. Jesus does what we are unable and unwilling to do. Jesus the Burglar comes in human flesh, ties up the devil, storms the dragon's lair and reclaims you, His rightful treasure. We're the plunder the Divine Thief carries off after He's tied up the strong man. We who were once dogs, rebels, and sinners are now Jesus' greatest treasure in the Cross. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday in Lent)-Rev. Samuel Schuldheisz is pastor of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Milton, WA.Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Duane BamschLearn more about your favorite hymns and find the deeper meaning behind the text with Eternal Anthems: The Story Behind Your Favorite Hymns. The book includes devotional commentary and historical facts from forty different contributing authors on fifty different hymns. Now available from Concordia Publishing House.

February 6, 2022 - Evening ServiceRev. Jeremy Johnson

Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Kintore College in Toronto on January 31, 2022. A scribe, perhaps dazzled by all these wonders, comes up to Him and says: Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go (Mt 8:19). We only know Jesus' answer: Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Mt 8:20). What does this answer mean? Music: Claude Debussy, Clair De Lune L32, arranged for guitar by Angel Romero. Museopen.org Thumbnail: Mosaic of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac from the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Rome, dating to the 6th century (Wiki Commons)

The Gerasene demoniac.

How many times and in how many ways does Jesus say, "What difference does it make if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?" How many ways does he say, “the last will be first”? He just can't say it enough. It's everywhere in the parables and the miracles. Lazarus, the woman at the well, the Gerasene demoniac, the blind, the deaf, the withered hand, the tax collector, the many lepers, the widow, the wedding guests, the salt of the earth. And he never, never says you just have to turn back for a little while, he says, "By your endurance you will gain your soul." He means endurance in faith, in fidelity to God. A permanent turn is needed. Daily orientation is the ask. But believe it or not, it becomes less difficult the more you play the game of interior conversion. The magic happens one day, when you no longer want to turn away. You want to remain turned, and you completely forget about the old ways.This is not like endurance in a marathon, or perseverance at work, or dedication toward achievements, or leadership in family life. This is endurance in turning toward God all the days, right up to the last day, to the end of your life, to the final hour. Knowledge, money, and self-mastery do not give you any endurance for this task. They usually turn you the wrong way. Seven hundred years ago, in Book 1 of the Imitation of Christ, the author says something that our modern ears don't want to hear, since we hold knowledge so dearly today: “As for knowledge, it comes natural to all of us to want it; but what can knowledge do for us, without the fear of God? Give me a plain, unpretentious farm-hand, content to serve God; there is more to be made of him than of some conceited University professor who forgets that he has a soul to save, because he is so busy watching the stars. To know yourself—that means feeling your own worthlessness, losing all taste for human praise. If my knowledge embraced the whole of creation, what good would it do me in God's sight?” (Book 1, “Imitation of Christ.”)Seven hundred years later that same conclusion can be found. What good is all this knowledge if I can't answer the bigger questions about life itself? What good is Google if there is only how and no why? If I know everything about the world, what good is that knowledge to me if I am without meaning? What good is money if I can only buy more stuff? In other words, what good does it do me to gain the whole world if I lose my soul in the process?There is no way to turn back while our eyes are glued to phone and computer and TV screens and our ears only hear voices from the current culture of disbelief. If you are hung up on politics or gossip, you will remain turned away, indifferent, starving for meaning while your bite closes down again and again on only air. How difficult it was for me to break away from the trance of modern distraction and vice. I think of the movie The Matrix, where the computer cursor types out to Neo, “The Matrix has you.” It has us all. We believe we have the control, the power, that we are the rulemakers of our own lives. But that's the trick. We are the controlled, the ruled, the servants of a sad and depressed culture, stroking our ego with beer and porn and memes and videos, pretending we're not desperate for something more. As the old saying from Charles Baudelaire goes, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.” The only way to break free is to shatter the illusion that you have control, and that will free your head to turn. The only way to freedom is through obedience to God, and the only way to the kingdom of heaven is through the Cross.If you are angry at Christians, as I once was, about a rule that they follow, you might want to ask them, why aren't they angry about the rules. How can religious people be so happy with so many rules? You can be assured that every Christian has vices, that there are rules that he wants to break. Without any mental strain at all, I can think of five rules right now that I like to break. There are temptations enough to satisfy even the most devout person. But instead of being angry about temptations and the rules, the convert does battle against them, knowing that the model that Christ provided is the way, the truth, and the life.This acceptance of the rules is similar to why basketball players and fans are happy with the game of basketball when it's played correctly, within the framework that it is intended to be played. Without rules, a basketball court would be chaos. It is exactly the rules that allow something beautiful to occur. Would you rather watch a badly refereed basketball brawl or a well-officiated basketball game? The latter of course, and you'll enjoy the game more because you aren't thinking about the rules. No, you are enjoying the game because there is agreement on the rules. Where no rules exist, you have lawlessness, you have chaos, and you have a mess. Where there are rules, you still get arguments, but you also get harmony. Without rules, you don't even get to have a game. How baffling to think that rules bring happiness. Why? Forgiveness, hence, joy. With that joy, the rules are fine because those rules outlaw things that we humans have already tried, experiences that have already failed to fill our cup of life. Like St. Therese said, the rules are small inconveniences once you are drinking from the vine of Christian life.It's not cool to be obedient, not in America. But now I don't really care what will make me cool for 40 or 80 years on earth, I want to know what God finds worthy for eternity, and the answer is in the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, the letters of Paul, and the lives of the saints. I don't care if a neighbor or a friend laughs at my faith. I don't care what arguments science or philosophy uses in attempts to tear down the Bible or the faith. I am the Merchant in the parable who has found the Pearl of great value. I am the one who finds the treasure in the field, who in his joy sells all to get the field. There is nothing that can disprove that Jesus is what he said he was. He literally is the way, the truth, and the life. I have to laugh when my former problems with literalism were resolved to the point that there are miraculous events in the Bible that I now receive…literally. And one of those literalisms that I believe is that "No one comes to the Father except through me." There is no study or syllogism or theory or axiom that can separate me from this Pearl.Here's what we don't want to hear. The self must die to reach the goal. This is what keeps us from turning back to God. For our whole life we are told to promote ourselves, to work on our selves, to believe in ourselves. And then Jesus decides to tell us that the self must die. If you find the Pearl, you are strangely willing to let the self decrease and, ideally, disappear. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Once you find the Pearl, the rest of the rules make perfect sense. That is why Paul can say without batting an eye, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me." His old self is dead and gone. Saul is no more. Paul is reborn, like a child. He has turned back to God and found new life. Nothing is the same.To cling to the self is the road to serfdom. To return like a child to faith is the road to freedom. To honor God above the self is the key to breaking out of your prison cell, and the key is already in your hand. To say yes to God, like Mary's consent to Gabriel - her great fiat of "Let it be done to me"; to let God's will take precedence over your own - "Thy will - not mine - be done" - as Jesus said in the garden the night before he died on the cross; to be selfless and honest in prayer like St. Therese in her "Little Way"; and most of all to be like a child saying his or her nightly prayer, or looking upon a manger scene at Christmas, or gazing at the crucifix at the wounds in Jesus' hands, feet, and side; and finally to know, without a doubt, that God joined us here on earth as a helpless baby, weak, vulnerable, suffering like us, that he entered our world, came into this world with us to share our pain in order to take it away...this is how you find your way back to belief and find the innocence that you lost. You will never find it in a book of facts. Your job will never give it to you. Your partner or spouse won't deliver the fullness that you seek. Knowledge and status and politics will never come close to where you want to be. But as long as those things consume your thoughts and your time, they will distract you and keep you from ever receiving belief, from experiencing the change. You will sit far away from the joy that your heart desires, bristling at God, in denial, secretly afraid that those parables and miracles might be true, clutching this world's pleasures close to you as if they have any value, and calling those who pray to the heavens fools. All of this keeps you away, because you don't like certain rules. Because you can't let go. Because surrendering feels weak when it is the only act that truly requires strength. And in the end, you won't experience the joy because you were too afraid to be open, too angry about the rules, and at last alone because you never even attempted to play. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

Behold, my Servant. Calming the storm, delivering the Gerasene demoniac, and healing the woman with the issue of blood and Jairus' daughter. My reflections are searchable by Bible chapter here: https://audio.alastairadversaria.com/explore/. If you are interested in supporting this project, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (https://bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or buying books for my research on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/36WVSWCK4X33O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035?mt=2.

In today's message we consider what we can learn about Jesus - his ministry, mission, and motivation - in the account of his encounter with the Gerasene demoniac.In Jesus' rescue of the Gerasene demoniac - a man who could not help himself - we are reminded of Jesus' authority and power, of his mission to "bind up the strong man and plunder him" and of his compassion for those who are drowning and unable to help themselves. The invitation to participate in the mission extended to this man who had spent only a few hours with Jesus is also a challenge for each of us to go to our own people and tell them what God has done for us and how he has shown mercy on us.Don't forget to check out the discipleship menu for this sermon and to join us for the Big III this week. This mid-week podcast is another way we hope to apply what we have heard. This week Matt, Jess, and I will be unpacking three questions raised by the sermon you just heard. One of the questions we'll be exploring is about the relationship between faith and healing.If you'd like to take your next faithful step in your discipleship make sure to download and subscribe to the Big III everywhere you listen to podcasts.We'd love for you to join us for one of our services this weekend. You can join us on Friday at 10:00 am, Sunday mornings at 9:30 or 6:00. Our 9:30 am will continue to be live-streamed and we'd love for you to join us online at www.gbconline.org.au.Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram to keep up with all we are doing. 

LEGION VS JESUS // Mark 5:1-20 Pastor Graham Phillips teaches on Mark 5:1-20, the story of the Gerasene demoniac. Together we consider the demonic realm, it's aims and methods and the glory of the Son of God and His triumph over the spiritual powers of darkness.

Happy patriotic non-unionized Biblical Labor Day! Open ye, thine King James Bibles and watch Kiefer Sutherland's 23 with us! Be sure to dress to the nines, or at least wear more than the Gerasene demoniac. Discussion Starters: Biblical occupations, best Bible versions, forced Bible reading, Catholic scripture reading, church dress code, chocolate covered random stuff, astrology and zodiac signs, Spiritual Undirection airsofting club, the smell of our ghosts, self-fulfilling prophetic names.

In this episode, Ken Shuman and a group of Faithwalkers reflect on Jesus's healing of the demon-possessed man from Gerasene, who did nothing but show up where Jesus was. This conversation was originally recorded in July of 2021.

Here's my video on “the priesthood of all believers” https://youtu.be/fi0a94fbAoc Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference: 0:00 - Introduction 1. 1:08 [What does Paul Mean by “The Faith”?] In Ephesians 4:7-16, what exactly does Paul mean by “the faith”? How does the Church attain to this unity, why is the Church so apparently lacking in unity, and why are so few believers participating? 2. 10:31 [About Stephen, Terah, & Abraham] Why does Stephen mention that Abraham's father Terah died before Abraham left his home (in Haran) in Acts 7:4? That seems to contradict Genesis 11: 26 and 11: 32 which say that Terah became the father of Abraham (then called Abram) by the time he was 70 and Terah died in Haran at the age of 205. This means that Stephen is saying Abraham was 135 when he left Haran, but Genesis 12:4 says he was (only) 75 when he set out from Haran. 3. 12:43 [Do You Have any Favorite Teachers?] What is your opinion of the written works of Emanuel Swedenborg, Watchman Nee, and Charles Spurgeon? Please share your favorite teachers. 4. 14:28 [Is Dancing a Sin?] Why do people think that dancing is a sin? Is there a biblical basis to this, or is this legalistic/unnecessary? 5. 19:38 [Should We Ask for Signs from God?] When we pray for direction from God, should we ask for specific signs to guide us or confirm God's will (similar to Gideon and the fleece) when the answer isn't clear to us? 6. 27:24 [Overcoming Laziness] PLEASE give me tips on how to overcome laziness! I work very hard at work but get literally nothing done around the house when I get home. Feel free 2 be harsh. I need it. Thanks! 7. 29:45 [Why did Jesus call Judas “Friend”?] In Matthew 26: 50, Jesus calls Judas "friend" as He is betrayed. Was Jesus being sarcastic at such a dire moment? The Greek word ἑταῖρος (hetairos) is used only by Matthew (11:16; 20:13; 22:12; 26:50). 8. 32:47 [Why Doesn't God Fully Reveal Himself?] Why does God not appear physically and audibly speak to everyone? I know some people that He does this with, but what makes them so special? Would it not get rid of all unbelief if He did? 9. 39:14 [About Jewish Forgiveness/Atonement] How do Jews today obtain forgiveness for sin without the temple and sacrificial system in place? 10. 43:46 [About Psalm 82] Who are the “gods” in Psalm 82? 11. 50:10 [About the Big Bang Theory] Should Christians believe in the Big Bang? My brother says it isn't biblical because the Big Bang Theory includes light, and God created light after the creation of the Earth. 12. 57:06 [About Modalism / Discussing the Trinity] How do I lovingly witness to my husband raised Oneness Pentecostal? Discussing the Trinity, he gets angry. Tongues, falling out, etc…he says I just don't get it because I haven't experienced it. 13. 1:00:18 [How to Summarize the Gospel] How do you summarize the Gospel when you are sharing it in conversation (e.g. with a stranger on the street or with someone from a different religion)? 14. 1:02:53 [How does the HS Speak?] How does the Holy Spirit speaks to me personally? I've left a hyper-charismatic church and am confused. 15. 1:06:24 [Why did God Choose to Die?] Why did God choose to die to redeem our sin? Does the Bible mention His motives for this method? Is this to show His power over death, or is there another reason? 16. 1:08:23 [Did Jesus get Tricked by Demons?] In the account of the demoniac at Gerasene, did Jesus make the swine run down the steep embankment and into the sea, therefore tricking the demons? Or did the demons somehow trick Jesus? 17. 1:15:05 [About Marriage Documentation] Due to the Coronavirus, me and my fiancé haven't had a chance to get documentally (or even in church) married (he's in another country right now). We behave as if we were, almost in everything. Is it justified? 18. 1:17:23 [How to Overcome Gluttony] How do I avoid gluttony? Should I stay within a strict calorie limit, or is that too legalistic? 19. 1:21:57 [About the “Priesthood of Believers”] I'm a Lat

We are looking at the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5. This man was demon-possessed, isolated, and wandered naked and bleeding among tombs. No one could subdue him. So... what in the world does that have to do with any of us today? Evil is real. If you set aside any horror movie imagery, does anyone in our society doubt the reality of evil right now? Evil also is not simplistic. It can be hidden and insidious. It is complex, multi-faceted, and sometimes overwhelming. It is not just "out there," but often in my own heart. And worst of all, it enslaves. So what sort of hope do we have in Jesus? And more practically, how we get it into our daily lives? Let's talk about the “Restoring Liberty” that Jesus brings. Discussion Questions The Incredible Hulk represents uncontrolled anger that leaves a trail of destruction. What does your anger look like? Has your anger left a trail of destruction that you regret? “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.” (Tolkien) How have you been healed by the gospel? When you hear of evil in the news, do you initially think lunatic, Satan and demons, or are you speechless? Are you more accepting of evil (This happens!) or do you gasp, “How could this happen!? What's the consequence of a person who is constantly denying evil and always catching up to it in all of its manifestations? Do you believe in demons? Is their activity rare, common, under the radar, or a part of fictional, primitive thinking? Are demons in our midst? Russ spoke of physiological, psychological, moral, and spiritual depression. Each has its separate cures or remedies. You can't cure spiritual problems with medical remedies and you can't cure medical problems with spiritual remedies. Do you agree with these categories and this basic premise? Evil can develop, evolve, and progress within a person to a point that it can't be controlled - as with the demon-possessed man. Jesus said in John 8:34 that sin enslaves. What does He mean? When Christ comes into your life, He's a threat! He threatens our peace (comfort) and masters (idols). When the real King comes the fake kings are exposed. What's an example of evil that people accept because it gives a feeling of peace and control? Gospel: Jesus was stripped, bled, and went to the tomb. Jesus isn't like the Hulk, who dominates and destroys. Rather, He trades His peace for our evil. Like the demon-possessed man, we are liberated. What did you need to hear in the sermon, or during this discussion?

This is Part 1 of what I expect will become an article series that ultimately probes the question, "Are fallen angels and demons the same thing?" Here, I unpack the various gospel accounts of the Gerasene demoniac, and I try to tell the story of what "might have" happened. In incorporating the three accounts from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and in "reading between the lines," I feel a dramatic scenario emerges. I've done my best to capture that here.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/romans/passage/?q=romans+12:1-2 (Romans 12:1-2) Have you ever wished to have the mind of a genius? Someone like Albert Einstein, Mozart, or Leonardo da Vinci? Maybe a politician like Abe Lincoln or Winston Churchill. Maybe Galileo, Plato, or Socrates. At Christmas I was given a book of wisdom by sports coach John Wooden. Great minds, geniuses. I really would like to have the mind of Jesus Christ. The mind is a physical organ – the brain – which directs all bodily functions and movements. It is also our speech. It's the seat of our intelligence, reason, and logic, our cognitive understanding, our ability to recognize, make judgments. It's the source of our creativity. The mind sets goals for the human will. It's not only our consciousness but also our subconscious. It's where dreams float and memory is stored. It's the resolve of new commitments. It's our self-awareness and self-definition. In the application of our minds, we solve problems, gain knowledge, process life experiences, pursue curiosities, and form our personal character. The Bible says, “As a man thinks, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). Aristotle said, “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing is at last sacred except the integrity of the mind.” Maybe that is why Mahatma Gandhi said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with dirty feet.” American author Mark Twain, with tongue-in-cheek, said, “Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.” Have you lost your mind? As a man thinks, so is he. The Bible speaks about spiritual rebellion as losing our mind or losing our senses. In spiritual rebellion, we live as if there is no God. It is a mindset not only of defiance but also one that journeys away from God as the source of life and our heavenly Father. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, saw that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a delight to eyes and desired to make one wise. They were seduced into thinking they knew better than God what was best for them. This is the root of spiritual rebellion – when we think we know better than God. We begin to believe the lies of the enemy, which further confuses our minds. In II Corinthians 4:4 we read, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they do not see the light of the gospel in the glory of Jesus Christ . . .” We then forget our identity. We develop spiritual amnesia and begin to live like orphans. We forget we are children of God, children of our heavenly Father and, like the prodigal in Jesus' story in Luke 15, we begin to live as if we have no father. Have you lost your mind? I like Jesus' story in Mark chapter 5 when He encounters the Gerasene demoniac among the tombs. This man is possessed and controlled by evil spirits, but Jesus sets him free. It says that after Jesus sets him free, he is clothed and has been restored to his right mind. That's why one goes from spiritual rebellion to repentance. The word literally means “a change of mind.” To repent means my mind is now reoriented to accept the way God thinks about life. When the prodigal, on his journey of brokenness, realized he had a heavenly Father, it says he came to his senses. He not only remembered that he had a Father, but also that the heart of his Father was good and full of love. So he decided to go home to his earthly father. This is repentance. We change our mind and begin to think like God thinks. Paul writes in Romans, “By the mercies of God, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice . . . Don't be conformed to this world, to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:1-2). The Greek word is metamorphosis. It's a process of transformation as our minds are renewed. Then our minds will guide our bodies to offer ourselves continually as a sacrifice to serve the purposes of God. I say it often, “Any dead fish can float downstream.” Have you ever known people who believe the gospel, know their Bibles,

Fear and Faith. Throughout much of the biblical narrative we encounter stories of people who danced between fear and faith. Stories such as the fear of the disciples on the stormy sea, to the townspeople after witnessing the healing of the Gerasene demoniac, to Jairus and his daughter. Yet, in the midst of these fears, we also encounter the Jesus who is bigger than our fears. The Jesus who tells us, “Do not fear. Instead, have faith.” In this weeks' message our guest, Pastor Dennis Edwards from Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN, takes us on a journey through these stories and exhorts the church to live in love – for there is no fear in love.