Monday, August 1, 2011

report turned into sermon

THE GOSPEL MARK

(this is the last few paragraphs of my report)

In chapter 5 Jesus heals a man with not just one demon, but many. This story always speaks volumes to me because this man had been tormented with a whole crew of demons. And we find out that the name of these demons is legion when Jesus asks. I relate on a personal level with this miracle because God has delivered me from many demons, one of them being self- mutilation. In verse 5 it says ‘night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.’ I started cutting when I was twelve years old and the amount of torment I went through just increased as I got older and into drugs. The miracle here is that God does not just deliver, but he delivers entirely, fully, completely, and purposefully. This man was so healed and saved that he begged to stay with Jesus. In verse 18 we see that he was so transformed to the point where nothing else mattered but to BE with Jesus, to be close to Him, to be in relation with Him. And that is exactly how I feel since I have been transformed. The purpose of him being tormented day and night and then being set free by Jesus, was so that this man could now go tell the world what had been done for him. In verse 20 it says that he went on to proclaim what Jesus had done, and everyone marveled. There is purpose to the pain!

The last miracle that speaks to me today is in chapter 10. This is where Jesus heals the blind man, Bartimaeus. This man was homeless and probably hungry and sick, but what I find interesting is that he didn’t ask Jesus to give him a house or food. This man had such faith in Jesus that he asked for the miraculous! How many times do we ask God for rest and for help to pay the bills- but we do not ask God to heal our anxiety or disease. We do not ask God Him to show His glory and magnificence through miracles. We seem to focus on the materialistic needs, or wants and we shy away from asking for the supernatural. I believe God has a strong desire to revive our faith and to bring healing and to show us his heavy healing presence. It is simply up to us to choose to have this faith.

In concluding the study on Mark I notice the final command to us from Jesus is to ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.’ The part where Jesus talks about those who believe will pick up serpents and drink deadly poison excites me. I think it is so daring to be a disciple of Christ. We are up against a legion of demons, but if we have faith, then we have the victory over any flaming dart. We are called to be warriors and over comers! We are called to fight! Once you meet Jesus and He saves you and speaks to you and delivers you, your life just begins. The difficulties that Christ will lead you to will open the doors of heavenly blessings if we obey His call. There is nothing easy about following Christ, but everything to gain. We have a command from the Lord to go out into all the earth and talk about Him. He says in the word that we who believe will cast out demons and heal the sick. God is waiting to perform miracles in the willing soldiers of Christ. He is calling us to the knowledge of the miraculous. We only need to obey the call and follow Jesus Christ no matter what the cost. He is our only hope.

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