Thursday, April 29, 2004

 

 

Dear Family;

 

I recently wrote to you concerning some thoughts in the first chapter of Mark. I try to keep these thoughts short enough for you to be able to read them in fairly short order so that you have time to think and meditate on them. I want to stimulate your thinking. I want to put your spirit in motion. I want you to communicate with God and for Him to communicate to you. Not through what I say but what He says to you in your thoughts as you think, meditate and pray. Then I want you to jot down on a piece of paper the things that come to your mind, things that God has said to your heart.

 

Now let us look at the verses in Mark 1.

 

Mark 1:23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are-- the Holy One of God!"(NKJ)

 

The scripture does not tell us what this unclean spirit was that this young man was possessed with. I tend to think the omission of its detail was intentional because I think the unclean sprit was universal in nature. I think God intended that we could put what ever unclean spirit we are possessed with in there. I think God gave us a blank sheet of paper to list those things that need to be removed from our heart, mind and body. I think God wanted us to list those things which hold our attitudes captive. I think He wants us to list our addictions, dependencies, shortcomings, sins and sicknesses. I think He wants us to look inside ourselves and find our fears and doubts. I think He wants us to see our anger, hate, hurt and jealousies. I think He wants to drive it all out of us so that we can experience the real peace, happiness and joy He has in store for us. I think He wants us to see all the things that fill up our life, our mind and our body that prevent Him from coming in and living in fellowship with us. I think He wants to remove everything that prevents us from being what He wants us to be.

 

Why was a possessed man in the synagogue?  Could it be that he was there because that is where Christ was? Could it be that God pulled at his heart strings and told him to be there? Could it be that Christ was there because the man was there? Maybe he was a priest or scribe. Perhaps he was one of the Sanhedrin. Does it really matter? He was a man with a bad spirit in him. He was a man who needed God! He was a man just like each of us before we come to Christ for cleansing and deliverance. He was just one of us. He could have been me or he could have been you and he was changed. He was changed then and there in the twinkling of an eye.

 

There are a lot of questions whose answers we might not know; but one thing we do know for sure. The root of his problem was spiritual. And we know that the spirit didn't necessarily want to be changed.  "Let us alone! What have we to do with You,---- Did You come to destroy us?  What did Christ do? Did He go to the priest? Did Jesus say you need a psychiatrist or a doctor? Did He say you need a new law or more government?  No!!!

 

Mark 1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" (NKJ)

 

He said "be quiet" stop doing what you are doing! Stop saying what you are saying! Stop thinking what you are thinking! --- Be quiet and come out of him! And it came out.

 

Look over that piece of paper and the things that need to change ask Christ to take them all away. Tell Him to say to that spirit, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"

 

Love Ya;

Dad