Here in the Boise area, we have fallen back into a cold snap, along with more (unneeded) moisture. When I got up this morning, it was foggy. Foggy!!! Part of that is because water is running so high from the snow melt in the mountains and the continuing heavy rains that the lawns are saturated and canals are coming over their banks. We’ve got standing water in the common areas of my subdivision from all the rain. The clay soil just won’t absorb any more. Anyway, it looked much more like February than the end of May when I opened my curtains at 6:00 this morning.
My goal for the summer while on break from BSF is to complete two more Beth Moore studies. I am now halfway through Jesus: the One and Only. This (my sixth of her studies) may very well become my favorite Beth Moore study just because the focus is all on the Christ. I’m now halfway through. And why do I so enjoy her studies? Because they make me go deep. I’m changed by them. I can’t be satisfied with head knowledge. I want to take them into my heart.
Anyway, in today’s study, we arrived at the story of the demon-possessed man in the country of the Gerasenes. The end of the story has the villagers begging Jesus to leave because His power caused them great fear. The man who’d been freed of the Legion of demons wanted to go with Jesus, but He said (Luke 8:39):
“Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”
While Beth didn’t mention this, I can’t help but note that the man who’d been set free understood that Jesus was God. Jesus said to tell what great things God had done, and the man went about telling what great things Jesus had done. God and Jesus were one and the same to the man set free.
Perhaps, since the demons recognized who Jesus was (vs. 28), that knowledge was imparted to the man before the demons left him for the swine that were soon to plunge off a cliff. Or perhaps when someone is set free of that kind of bondage, a person cannot help but see the truth of who Jesus is.
Something to ponder as I begin my cold and foggy Memorial Day weekend.
~robin
