Inside Out Living

This is a picture of the remains of the church that was built to commemorate Jesus' healing of the demoniac in Mark 5.

I was reading in Mark 5 today and observed some interesting things from this passage that I thought I might share with you.

I found it very interesting that Jesus even entertained a conversation with the "legion" of demons that were possessing this particular man. I am not quite certain what we are to make of this. It isn't as if Jesus has to grant their request to enter into the swine. We could make the argument that He was attempting to demonstrate the value of a human life over animals. While, that is indeed true and consistent with the overall teaching of Scripture, I don't think that it is necessarily the point of the passage. One thing that this interaction does demonstrate is Jesus authority over the demonic forces. They have to receive his permission to be able to enter into the swine. This doesn't mean that God is always directly granting permission to demonic forces, but it does mean that He possesses authority over these forces, and when He chooses to exercise that authority, they have no choice but to obey. The reality that we face is that for the time being, God doesn't exercise that authority on a constant basis, but the Bible gives us hope because according to Revelation, God will eventually exercise that authority in a final judgment of Satan and his demons.

The next thing that I noticed is Jesus compassion for this man. The community around him had only attempted to lock him up as a way to deal with him. As is evident from the text, this effort was met with failure and frustration. I would imagine that the community would live with his behavior until the acts were offensive enough to bother them to the point where they would try to arrest him. However, no one had attempted to deal with his spiritual condition that was causing the behavior (at least we don't know from the text that no one had attempted to do so). Jesus, knowing the condition of this mans tormented soul, goes about the process of setting him free and extending hope to him. This is the difference between compassion and justice. Certainly the community was within its right to try to exercise justice towards this man for things he had done wrong, but what he needed was compassion and for someone to deal with his spiritual condition.

This is how we need to interact with the world around us. All to often the church of Jesus Christ is so concerned with justice and protecting our own rights, that we neglect the need for compassion. We have to realize that people are not the real enemy, but rather that our "struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." (Eph 6:12 NET)

Another interesting thing to note is that the text mentions that after the demons left the man and the people from the nearby town come out to see Jesus, they find the man "fully clothed and perfectly sane." (Mark 5:15 NLB) Why does the text mention that the man was fully clothed, probably because he was naked when he was demon possessed. So the question becomes, where did the clothes come from. I think the most logical answer would be from Jesus and his followers. Since they were constantly travelling around, they would have carried additional garments to change into when necessary. They more than likely gave the man some clothes as an act of compassion and generosity. This reminds us of the need to not only meet a man's spiritual needs, but also his physical needs.

The last two years I’ve had the privilege of leading students from our church on a mission trip to Mexico. Both times I have been able to participate in a baptismal service with our sister church. What a blessing it has been to baptize some of our Spanish- speaking brothers and sisters. This experience has impressed upon me the common unity we have with Christians who speak a different language. Last year, after a couple of times of hearing our translator, Paul, translate my declaration of their baptism, I began to, with some difficulty, baptize them in Spanish.

I realized that it did not matter what language I was speaking in performing the baptism. I was baptizing a child of God and recognizing their membership into the universal Church. For no matter where or when Christian baptism takes place, “we are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all” (Eph. 4:4-6).

“’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” – Amazing Grace by John Newton

In Jesus’ description of the time of tribulation, He mentions that there will be attempts “to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones” (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). This statement by Jesus gets me thinking about the role that God’s grace plays in bringing about our salvation. As the words to Amazing Grace declare, “grace will lead me home.” How true.

God’s grace is efficacious in our lives, meaning that it will produce its desired effect in our lives once it has been given by God himself. Simply put, when someone is saved by God’s grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9), that grace will absolutely guarantee their salvation. “And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those He has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the last day” (John 6:39).

May you stand confident in God’s grace, knowing that it will indeed lead you home.

“God saved you by His special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” – Ephesians 2:8-9

I was once asked how I respond to God for His gift of salvation, considering that not everyone will receive that gift. I think that the gratitude and joy expressed in Isaiah 25:9 sums it up well. There is nothing more and nothing less that can be done in response to God’s salvation than to just praise Him. You cannot claim credit for your salvation, for you did not earn it. And it is not that your faith is greater than the next person, for the faith to believe is from God Himself (John 6:44, 65).

Any time you find yourself feeling proud and satisfied about your faith when standing before God, instead of feeling humble and gracious, that is an attitude that should be repented of. The only right response toward our salvation is one of worship and gratitude for the free gift that God has given us.

The theme this week is communication. The wisdom literature of the Proverbs and the poetry of the Psalms have much to say about how we communicate. Sometimes this communication happens internally, sometimes it happens with other people, and sometimes it happens between us and God. So much of life involves communication, so I hope that you are able to glean much from the devotionals this week.

Todays Devotional:

I don’t know if you have heard of the TV show American Idol. Basically the show is a singing competition. My favorite part of the show is the audition segment in the first few weeks. It never fails that a few people will audition who are poor singers, but think they are good because all their friends say they are good. Either these friends are terrible judges of musical talent, or they were saying flattering words to boost this person’s self-esteem.

This is the danger of flattery. It is terribly misleading, if not entirely wrong. Proverbs tells us that flattery causes ruin (26:28), that it is a trap for people (29:5), and that it is less appreciated than frankness (28:23).

Flattery can be as subtle as it is destructive. It can be easy to justify the use of flattery as well. How bad can something we say be if it results in someone feeling better about themselves. Even though you love and care for the person that you are speaking with, the Bible tells us to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), not speak a half-truth or choose to omit the truth.

Flattery may sound nice, but in the end someone will get hurt.

This week’s theme is the fear of the Lord. This is an often puzzling subject and can be difficult to fully comprehend. God loves us and we love Him in return, and yet we are also supposed to fear Him. Sometimes this fear is a sense of awe and respect because of the holiness of God and the fact that He is so vastly different than we are. Sometimes this fear of God is because, as the sovereign Lord, He is the one who judges our actions and thoughts and has the power and authority to save and to condemn at the same time.

Today's Devotional:

At lunch today I had to do a little maintenance on our home computer that my wife uses for work. I suggested to her that she begin to solve these problems without my help. She promptly declared that, as long as I was around, she didn’t need to; she had a ‘learned helplessness’ when it came to our computer.

King Joash took the throne when he was seven years old. I wonder if his early ascension didn’t develop in him a learned helplessness. As a child he surely had been taught, if not just told, what to do by Jehoiada. He never developed an ability to think independently. Joash remained fully dependent upon the input and influence of others around him as is clear from his departure from the Lord following Jehoiada’s death.

Do you suffer from a spiritual learned helplessness? May you fear the Lord and may your faith mature that you will “no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth” (Eph. 4:14).

The devotional from last Saturday (9/13) was about how David fulfilled his covenant promise to Jonathan by showing kindness to his son, Mephibosheth. Today, we have been reminded of this act in the reading. As we think about this today we are going to consider David’s treatment of Mephibosheth in light of God’s treatment of us.

Mephibosheth had done nothing to deserve the kindness that David showed to him. It was an undeserved gift. Mephibosheth was the benefactor of David’s decision to fulfill his commitment to Jonathan.

God is not contractually or morally bound to save anyone. Based on our actions, we are all deserving of his judgment. For our sake, God has chosen to extend grace to all who come to faith in Jesus Christ. “God saved you by His special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12).

In writing Psalm 60, David is crying out to the Lord for help against the enemies that he is battling with. David makes the statement in verse 11 that “all human help is useless.”

This statement is especially true for the battle we face as Christians, for as Eph. 6:12 so clearly states, our battle is a spiritual one. In the spiritual battle that all people face, human help is indeed useless because of the turtle syndrome. Turtles are incapable of helping themselves if they are placed on their backs and, without outside help, they will die. We people are the same. Without outside help or someone to intervene, we will die. Fortunately, Jesus intervened and “died once to defeat sin, and now He lives for the glory of God” (Rom. 6:10).

The theme for this week is sin. I know it is not very glamorous and not so fun to think about, but it is a reality that we all live with. This week’s readings have us right in the heart of David’s kingship. We will see him at his highest point and his lowest point during this week.

Some of the topics we will think about are judging, depravity, confession, forgiveness, consequences and death. Because of our broken nature, sin permeates our lives. We live with the impact of sin all around us. I hope that through the devotionals and Bible reading this week, you will have a better handle on how to manage the impact of sin in your life.

Today's Devotional

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2).

Making judgments about others comes natural to human nature; broken, fallen, sinful human nature that is. While, as Christians, we are not to ignore sin in the lives of our brothers and sisters, this action is always to be done in love (Eph. 4:15), aiming towards repentance (Gal. 6:1), and after proper self-reflection (Matt. 7:3-5).
In today’s reading we see David’s wife, Michal, make a quick judgment against David on an issue that did not involve sin. Unhappy with how David chose to worship the Lord before the Ark, she condemns David for this action.

These are the types of judgments that scripture teaches are not for us to make. When we pass judgments on others’ actions that are not clearly defined as sin by scripture, we are usurping God’s role as the righteous judge and ruler over all humanity. Instead of judging, we are to leave room for God to work.