Go Home

Mark 5:19
.......But He said to him, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you."

The man was demonized. They flooded his thinking. They directed his movements. They tormented him. He lived among the tombs, if you could call it living. His life was literally hell here on earth. Into this wretched existence stepped Jesus, the Son of God.

With authority and power, Jesus spoke and commanded the demons to leave the man. Talk about healing! The man was set free from this power of darkness that had owned him. Jesus simply spoke, just as He had spoken at creation ("Let There Be Light!"). Here in is the mystery, in that Jesus' spoken words have power to change, to create, and to do battle and victory over the devil. Of course, in this case, it wasn't much of a battle.

The people of the nearby village came to see what all the hub-bub was about. This demonized man had been troubling them for some time. His screams at night kept the town doors locked. There had been several attempts to bind him, each one failing because of the supernatural strength given to this man by the devil. They had bound him in chains, only to see him break them off like they were strings. Now there sitting before the people of the village was the man formerly demonized, now in his right mind.

Jesus, preparing to leave, was stepping into a boat when the man came asked Jesus to let him go with him. Jesus turned and told him, "Go home! And tell what has happened to you." Isn't that really the heart of Jesus and His Kingdom? To tell our story.

You can take this story of the demonized man and see the evil, controlling life of addiction. You can see the devil's fingerprints all over a life of addiction. Yet through the Power of Jesus Christ, we can be set free to live a new and meaningful life. But this new life comes with a commandment, not a suggestion...not a hint. TELL YOUR STORY! Step #12 reads that Having had a Spiritual Awakening, we seek to practice these principals in all our affairs and to take this message to others who are struggling.

We "practice" these principals----this means that there is a discipline that we continue to follow in our daily lives. God, being a God of order, has given us tools to bring discipline into our former life of chaos. As we walk in this manner, we tell our story to others. That is why we are going to merge into our Saturday night meetings at Rapha, testimony from others who are walking in Step #12.

Last Saturday night, we had two former clients  come to the meeting, both having a fair amount of clean time. I asked each of them if they would share some of what had been going on in their life. Each man spoke of how God had saved them from destruction and given them purpose to live out this new life. One added that he never had much use for the 12 steps, that his belief was all he needed was to go to church. Well, going to church is huge......but there was no discipline that aided him in his recovery. There is a saying that Jesus will save your soul, but he will not keep you sober. This may offend some who read this, but please see the truth behind this saying. Jesus has the power to bring healing to your life, but you must be responsible and do the things necessary to not place yourself back into temptations or people who may influence you to relapse.

Remember....
Your life....
Your testimony to the awesomeness of Jesus....
may be the only Bible that some people will read.
Do they see a life delivered and saved when the "read" you?
Praise God for his love for us!

God on you.....
mb