Verse of the Day 1/28

Through the Bible - Isaiah 17-19, Mark 5:1-20

 

Good morning,

I ended yesterday's devotional with the song "Keep Believing".  I wanted to pick up on one line - "your hope's not gone, it's just been too long, since you had to believe".  Sometimes its those storms in life that bring us to what Henry Blackaby referred to as a crisis of belief.  It may be a point of turning from God or turning to Him, for good, once and for all.  It is the one's who will believe that will receive the gifts of mercy and grace by which Christian peace is obtained.

 

The Old Testament reading plan above is currently going through the book of Isaiah.  One of my favorite verses (there are many favorites found there) from that book is Isaiah 26:3:

 

Isa 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.   NIV

Jesus was a picture of perfect peace in yesterday's passage.  While the storm was raging He was able sleep in the stern of the boat.

For today's verse we'll move forward to Mark 5 to find someone else who was showed mercy then exhibited the grace and peace in his life.  The demoniac had been tormented by demons for years, Jesus restored his sanity.

 

Mark 5:19 And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and  tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."  20 And he went away and began to proclaim in  the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.    ESV

It's hard to imagine what it would be like to be tormented by 2000 voices in your head.  Sometimes we can feel tormented in our storms with all of the voices of "woulda, shoulda, and coulda".  Jesus can deliver us from all of these if we keep our minds focused and set on Him.

 

Read through the story in Mark 5.  Once again Mark describes the scene with "immediately".  As soon as he gets out of the boat Jesus is confronted by this demon possessed man.  He shows HIs perfect peace once again. 

 

Consider the value of a tormented soul.  2000 pigs would have carried a lot of value, would have meant a lot to the local economy.  What a sight it must have been on the seashore.  The people were so taken back that they asked Jesus to leave.  The event impacted them in a negative way.  All this for the sake of one lunatic?

 

The demoniac couldn't be kept quiet.  He went out to proclaim what Jesus had done for him to the region of Decapolis, ten cities.  He couldn't keep quiet about what a difference, what a change Jesus had made in his life, and everyone marvelled.  How many do you think may have been impacted?  Keep in mind the importance of one as you read through the gospels, especially Luke 15.

 

What difference has He made in your life?  How has He shown you mercy?  What storms, what tormenting voices have been calmed or cast out?

In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV
Mark 5:1-21

 

5  They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.  2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3  He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and  fell down before him. 7 And  crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus,  Son of  the Most High God?  I adjure you by God, do not torment me." 8 For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"  9 And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is  Legion, for we are many." 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them." 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.

 

14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had  the legion, sitting there,  clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And  they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and  tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."  20 And he went away and began to proclaim in  the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.   ESV