December 23, 2022
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Reading along with us in our Advent readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Day 23 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Popularity
Read Sections 3.53 through 3.56 (pages 63-66)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
I try to imagine what it must have been like to walk the streets with Jesus and the crowd that would form as He would effortlessly heal, cast out demons, and raise the dead. The disciples went from ordinary lives to watching miracles happen all around them done by their own Savior!
Lord help me to notice the miracles all around me, all the way you are working always. Help me to have the faith that just a touch of your robe can bring healing, restoration, and peace. Thank you for coming to this earth to experience life from our perspective and thank you for loving us despite our constant short comings.
Advent Day 23
This man called legions. Yikes. How many demons. 1000’s?? How did this happen had to have opened up a garage door for satan to enter like that. People who do that today. They have no idea satan is a liar and has come to kill and destroy. !! Love to give him a black eye by resisting temptation and sharing. Hope to have a seat to watch him get thrown in the lake of fire. Delights in things like child porn or sex trafficking to name just a few. For years I feared him. Now he fears the one who lives in me. For Jesus to cast them into a herd of pigs. Pigs unclean to Hebrews. Must have been owned by gentiles. Who took offense to losing their herd asking Jesus to leave. Geez. Ask him to please stay and who he was and how did he free someone from demonic possession. Imagine the woman who was bleeding for years. Her money gone. Not much of a life at all. At her wits end. Jesus publicly calls her out. Why?? To show other? To also show her of his compassion and love. As he calls her daughter. Jarius. A religious leader. More important to see his daughter live than to be accepted by his peers.
Day 23
3.53 – 3.56
How terrible to be possessed by demons and be subject to their destructive influence and then be an outcast as well. It says a lot that these demons recognize Jesus’ authority over them as well as the desire/need they have to possess something. One wonders why a person would own such a great numbers of pigs in a Jewish area and their forbidden consumption may explain why Jesus was ok sending them into them. The pigs knew better than to be possessed and chose death instead. It says a lot about these people when confronted by the power of God freeing this man from his torment that they ask Jesus to leave. And what a grace extended to this man that Jesus wanted him to return to a normal life that he had missed as opposed to following Him.
And I just love these next 2 accounts. First what a great expression of the power of faith in that other people touching Jesus did not cause Jesus to have power leave Him, but this woman’s touch did that because she had need and believed. It is also interesting that Jesus recognized when power left Him and faith caused it to happen without His “permission”. And then to have Jesus undaunted in hearing the report that the girl had died. Resurrection is not more difficult for Jesus than healing a disease, or even wakening her from sleep. And Jesus once again validates the power of faith directed toward Him by healing 2 blind men. And when people disagree with what Jesus is doing, they will come up with all kinds of other explanations why He can do what He can do. Jesus did and said so many things that revealed that He was God, that the Jewish leaders really had to try hard to not believe who He was.
Many times Jesus says “you were healed because you believed”. It is very important to walk by faith throughout our lives. It’s not an easy thing to do during difficult times, but the benefits of believing in God’s truth are well worth it. He is with us, and we can trust in him always even if we don’t feel it.