November 18, 2015 (Wednesday)
Today at Bethel Baptist Church Ingleside we will study Mark 5, which we were scheduled to do last Wednesday but were unable to do because of illnesses and schedule conflicts. Mark 5 tells us of Jesus casting demons from a possessed man in Gadara, his healing of a woman who touched his clothing as he passed by in a crowd, and his raising a little girl back to life.
The demoniac was chained because he was possessed by many demons and evidently became very violent. Jesus spoke with the demons who used the voice of the demon-possessed man to tell him their name was Legion, because there were many of them within this poor man. Knowing Jesus was going to cast them out, they begged to be transferred to a herd of swine. When that happened, the swine ran amok and hurled themselves over a cliff to their deaths. The people watching had left to secure more restraints because the man had broken loose, but when they returned they found the man “clothed, in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.” This is the difference Christ made in his life. He was transformed from a “wild man” to a gentle, submissive person who just wanted to be near Jesus and learn from him.
Jesus was not finished performing miracles that day. The woman who “touched the hem of his garment” never forgot that eventful day, because her life could never again be the same. The little girl raised from death itself would always be willing to tell anyone about how a gigantic fabulous miracle had taken place in her life. When Jesus comes, life is never again the same.
A few days ago I read an article by a columnist who ridiculed Ben Carson’s testimony of having been changed from a violent young man to the calm, collected and educated gentleman he is today. He gives credit to the Lord. His is a testimony much like those of many other people. As the song says, “When Jesus comes things are changed.” The writer, however, criticized Carson as being insincere and questioned the reality of conversions in others, using examples of people who seemed to fail at serving God. Well, there are doubtless some folks who have failed to follow through on their commitments to Christ, but most of those are people struggling to do better in their Christian life. The trend among writers and others today is to criticize Christians harshly and call attention to their failures. We indeed are human, but millions of us can give credence to the fact that Christ makes a difference in our lives. He came to give us eternal life after death and abundant life here and now.