Luke 8:26-27 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.And when He came out onto the land, He was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons; and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.
I am not a horror movie fan. I've seen the first "Halloween" years ago and saw a few of the "Nightmare on Elm Street"s but never really enjoyed them. A few years back my husband said, "Hey, let's watch "The Ring", giving in - I did. That did if for me - NO MORE. Why do people watch movies that you have to sit through with your eyes covered half the time and then spend the rest of the night dreaming about it - in a bad way.
This leads me to today's post. Why choose a topic I clearly would rather not go into? God takes the things that challenge us, and uses it for His glory - I'm hoping that's what will come of this.
Demonic possession can literally take the person completely out of control. It says so in this verse - I'm not talking about what Hollywood does. It says the man who was demon - possessed did not wear clothes and was living in the tombs. Common sense in a human is to put on clothes to protect our bodies - and to live among the living - not the dead. This man had lost complete control of his body.
Jesus did not go seeking this man - when He arrived at this city, the man came up out of the tombs to Him. Remembering that this man had no control of his body - it was the demons who went up to Jesus. Why? Why would they come out to this Man? Because the demons know that Jesus is the Son of God. There were no other crowds forming as He entered the city - no one else running to touch the Almighty - how sad to think that, then and today, the demons know and fear God and yet His own creations (us) turn in disbelief.
4 comments:
I remember reading this story. There were many such stories where Jesus cast out demons and here is what I noticed and thought about when I read them. Whenever he did it, there were those who accused him of being evil because the demons listened to him. Many times he was asked to perform these miracles but when he did the crowd turned on him. So where these demons presenting themselves just for that purpose? Did they know that by exposing themselves, Jesus would take action and by him taking action he would be accused. I have seen many similar situations over the years and wonder if these things are setups.
Great food for thought.
Long ago I recall a pastor saying that most of our miracle stories of Jesus are among the "church/temple folks." Possibly the manifestations of the demonic possessed showed up in the strong presence of Holy Spirit in Holy Messiah: Jesus Christ.
Haven't you seen some people change everything they are doing because you showed up and the presence of God in you does something to their spirit?
I don't think we have the ability to "see" or discern even a speck of all that is going on about us in the spiritual realm. A loving merciful Heavenly Father lets us see what we can handle.
You are always on target.
That really is so amazing. We as humans base our beliefs so much on what we see that our actions follow suit. Those who don't have the Holy Spirit have no understanding of spiritual matters.
You have so much insight Dorothy. I always love your lessons.
(off topic) I lost a lot of breaks after I quit smoking too. :)
Wow, wow! What great writing, as usual. Yes, we sometimes don't even recognize God. I'm so thankful that he is patience with me.
Loved this today!
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