Desperate for Change

Are you desperate for change? Have you exhausted your resources in an effort to fix your life? Mark 5:24-34 tells a story about a woman who had spent all that she had in an attempt to heal her body, but all that money and time and pain had been an exercise in futility. For 12 years, this woman had fought with her disease, gotten a second opinion, then a third, and yet no doctor or treatment could cure her of her disease.

Aren't our lives like this? We have a horrible disease; it is called sin. You can fight it, but you will lose. Just like someone with a deadly virus, we are dead men walking, because sin is a spiritual disease that has physical effects. We die physically because of the disease of sin we were born with. That's the bad news.

Here's the good news. Jesus Christ. Just like our friend in Mark, who stalked Jesus, reached out her hand in faith and touched his clothes, all we must do is reach out our hand in faith and trust in Jesus' obedient life and sacrificial death. When we put our faith, our trust, in Jesus Christ, we are healed, too! Our spiritual disease gets cured, and we start seeing evidence in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

So go in peace, and follow Christ!

Todd

Portrait of a Believer

Mark 5:1-20 tells us the story about a man who was out of control. His life was ruled by demons. And not just a couple; the name of the demon was Legion, "for we are many." How many? Enough to stampede 2,000 pigs to their death. This man was miserable, crying out and cutting himself day and night. He was living in the graveyard, for crying out loud, and he was obviously harassing the general public if they were attempting to restrain him with shackles. But it didn't do any good; the demons were too strong. No chains could bind him; no jail cell could hold him.

So how do you explain the man, "sitting there, clothed and in his right mind"? Who is this Jesus? And what happened to the pigs!?! I can imagine the reactions of the people, and I'm not terribly surprised that they begged Jesus to leave. Jesus rocked their world.

Jesus rocked the world of the man with the demons, too, and he was ready to follow Jesus. Jesus had other plans, however. Jesus told the man to go home, and to tell his friends what God had done for him. I think this is precisely what God expects us to do; we have been freed from the demonic stranglehold of sin. We are no longer in bondage to sin. We are free to serve! And all God wants us to do is keep loving Jesus and to tell our friends what he has done for us.

What has Jesus done for you?

Todd

Believe the Gospel and Be Baptized

For several months my son, Brandon, has been hinting that he may be a believer. I gather this from his statements when we talk about what it means to be a Christian. He will say things like, "Daddy, I believe in God," or "Daddy, I trust Jesus." Monday night, after our family devotion time, he seemed to indicate again that he believed in Jesus, so I decided to give him some work to do.

I worked from home yesterday in order to help with the kids since my wife was feeling under the weather. I gave Brandon an exercise: read in the book of Acts and write down what one must do to be saved, and what one should do when they are saved. He worked off and on during the afternoon, and he made it through Acts 9. I helped him here and there, and finally he had written enough that I thought he could recognize a pattern. His results were something like this:

accept the message, be baptized (2:41) believe the message
(4:4) believe the good news about Jesus, be baptized (8:35, 38) be filled with the Holy Spirit, be baptized (9:17, 18)

I asked him, "Brandon, do you see a pattern?" He smiled and said, "I need to be baptized!"

I told him to go tell his mom, and we talked about it briefly. I am planning to spend more time talking with him about this, but I think the first fruits of a believer are clearly evident.

I'm looking forward to celebrating his faith in Christ when he is immersed in believer's baptism!

Todd