Demons are real. Just ask anyone who has come out of the occult and been saved by Jesus.  Even so, it’s a subject rarely talked about in Christian circles in spite of the fact that the Bible often mentions demons, and in spite of the fact that Scripture tells us Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14); in other words, like something benign, even desirable.  And isn’t that happening now? Millions of our children are being desensitized to the occult by Harry Potter books full of witchcraft and sorcery, as well as the Twilight movie series depicting vampires, a traditional satanic symbol, and all portrayed in a desirable light.

But make no mistake, Satan and His hoards are anything but benign or desirable. If you follow Jesus to the country of the Gadarenes in Matthew 8:28-34 you see two men under the control of demons. And what a pathetic sight! We are told they are savage, that they shriek and scream, showing them to be wild, without self control, and mentally tormented. And no one can get near these men without injury. In Mark 5:1-5 we learn they don’t live in houses but in the tombs, desolate and alone, isolated from normal life and the company of others. Mark tells us they cut themselves with rocks. The Amplified goes even further and tells us they beat and bruised themselves. Luke 8:27 adds that they wore no clothes. This is a clear and vivid picture of what our enemy wants to do. It depicts the sorry state to which he desires to reduce us, a state of torment and isolation, where we inflict pain upon ourselves and others. And the sad thing is that every day, more and more people are opening themselves up to the incursion of Satan through demonically inspired books, movies, music as well as the use of drugs, etc. It is so pervasive I fear we could lose an entire generation of young people.

The good news is that Jesus, with just His words of “Be gone!” was able to drive out the demons which were called “legion” because there were so many of them. It’s interesting to note that Jesus allowed the demons to enter a herd of swine. Pork was forbidden under the Levitical Law. So what was an entire herd of pigs doing in the land? Illustrating that the Jews were not following their laws, thus opening themselves up to Satanic attack. As Christians we are under grace and have only two laws to follow: 1) Love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength, and 2) love our neighbor as ourselves. Both of which the Holy Spirit empowers us to do.

We need to know our enemy. He is nothing like God. He is no gentleman, doesn’t play fair, lies, deceives, gives no quarter, is cruel and, as 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, goes about like a “roaring lion . . . seeking whom he may devour.” Jesus Himself warns us that the devil has three goals for each of us: to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Therefore, we must be vigilant and not give Satan any place in our lives.

Until next time,

Sylvia

Okay, here’s a side of Jesus the church rarely talks about. In John 2:13-17 Passover is approaching and Jesus comes to the Temple in Jerusalem. And what does He find? He finds the Temple enclosure full of merchants selling sheep, oxen and doves for sacrifices, as well as money changers, those who, for a fee, convert foreign currency into shekels for visiting Jews.

Jesus’ reaction is swift and fierce. He makes a whip and drives “them all out of the temple enclosure;” the animals, the merchants, the money changers. Then to add insult to injury, He overturns their tables, scattering their precious money all over the floor while stating “Make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” The apostles understand that this is in fulfillment of the Scriptures and illustrates Jesus’ consuming zeal for His Father’s house. The Amplified also adds, “I (meaning Jesus) will be consumed with jealousy for the honor of Your house.”

What happened here? Why was Jesus so upset? Because man had mixed the profane with the sacred. Because they had tainted the holiness of the Temple with unholy things. They had made God’s Holy house a marketplace, a shopping mall.

I often write about God’s love for I believe that describes God best. But we must understand that God can also get angry. And I think He gets angriest when He sees His holy church defiled. Many pastors will have much to answer for at the judgment! For many have allowed the world to pollute their churches with worldly ideas and ways. Many have let their love of money and riches and the desire for fame and a bigger congregation crowd out the pure Word of God until it is nothing more than a shopping mall selling lattés and “feel-good” messages that offend no one.

But this must be how God feels about us, individually, at times, too. After all, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and are to live holy lives through His power. And when we pollute ourselves, sometimes God must upend our tables, too. He must turn our world upside down out of “jealousy for the honor” of His house. And so again, not surprisingly, love enters into the equation. It’s His great love for us that makes Him jealous and not able to stand idly by while we allow pollutants to enter His holy territory. He must address our offenses—our chasing after other gods of money, fame, pleasure, ease, etc. So before He has to upend our tables let us partner with Him and get our house in order.

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

 

 

I really like this one. In Luke 5:1-9 we follow Jesus to the Sea of Galilee where, after preaching to a crowd from Peter’s boat, He tells Peter to go out into deeper water and lower his nets. Peter is quick to reply that he’d been toiling all night and caught nothing. But he stops short of telling Jesus he thinks His suggestion is foolish. Instead, Peter does what Jesus asks. And what do you know? His nets nab so many fish they nearly break and Peter has to call his partners in another boat to come over and help haul in the catch.

How like Peter we are. We toil and toil on our own, often accomplishing little or nothing, when we should have waited for a word from the Lord. Just one word from Him can make all the difference between success and failure. How often I’ve run ahead and tried to work things out on my own, and then when I’ve felt utterly defeated, Jesus comes along and points me in the right direction, changing everything. It reminds me of Psalm 127:1 that says “unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain who build it.” That can be said of all our endeavors. So why continue trying to do things without God?

The other thing I really like about this passage is how considerate Jesus is. Peter worked all night trying to catch fish and yet was obedient by taking Jesus in his boat just off shore while Jesus spoke to the crowd. If I’d been up all night I think I’d be off somewhere sleeping. But Peter’s sacrifice and obedience did not go unnoticed. For after Jesus finished addressing the crowd, he instructed Peter to lower his nets, knowing full well the outcome. The point is, we can never outdo Jesus. He is aware of our obedience and those times we may be inconvenienced or suffer for His sake. And though we may not always believe this or experience it immediately in our lives, Jesus will reward us with His peace, His joy and yes, sometimes with unbelievable success at our jobs or endeavors.

So when we cast our own nets, let us do it according to God’s direction. The outcome is sure to be greater than we can imagine.

Until next time,

Sylvia

Tax collectors have always been despised. In ancient times they abused their power by extracting more taxes than was due in order to line their own pockets. Even in modern days, tax agents fail to inspire warm and fuzzy thoughts. Who has not heard a nightmare story of how someone’s property was confiscated by the tax man, or how an error, that should have been corrected in a week, took months and sometimes years for the taxing agency to adjust? So tax collectors continue to inspire fear or distain, but never love. Yet, in Mark 2:14-17 it is one of these tax collectors (a type and shadow of a sinner) that Jesus chose as His disciple. He called Levi (Matthew) while the man was actually sitting at his taxing station, and said, “Follow Me!” But that wasn’t the end of it. Jesus then went to the man’s house and ate with him!

Naturally, the scribes, which verse 16 in the Amplified tells us belonged to the party of the Pharisees, were outraged. Nothing changes. Modern day Pharisees and their ilk are still outraged whenever someone out of their comfort zone takes his/her place beside the Lord. What they fail to realize is that God is no respecter of persons. He loves us and wants to use us for His kingdom and glory. Even those of us who, at first glance, don’t seem to qualify. The truth is, no one qualifies on their own merits, and certainly not because they belong to the “right” party or group. Rather, we see in verse 17 the heart of it. Jesus told these religious hypocrites that He had come to call sinners to repentance. And in that we all qualify.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That means He is still calling sinners to repentance and saying, “Follow Me!” even those who have followed Him a long time and blown it and think, “well, that’s it. He could never use me now,” and even those who are still sitting in there sins like Levi was. For those that repent, there is a place in the Lord made especially for them, as well as the promise of a deep abiding fellowship. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup (dine) with him, and he with me.” Dinner is ready, and Jesus is waiting at the table. It’s time to join Him.

Until next time,

Sylvia

How can we find our value in a bargain basement world? For God’s people, the answer is simple. We can’t. Why? Because the world’s value system and God’s value system are completely different. The world values physical beauty, wealth, success while God values holiness, integrity, honesty, faithfulness and the like. And if we focus on what the world values it often causes us to devalue ourselves. It’s easy to feel we’re not important. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway. And thus we can feel insignificant.

That’s when we need to redirect our focus from the things of the world to the things of God. When seen in this light, the world offers little. Look at their take on physical beauty. Their standards are so artificial that few can match them. And this has reaped a harvest of suffering. 1% of all American female adolescents have anorexia—that’s 1 out of 100 girls between the ages of 10-25 who are starving themselves; 2 to 3 out of 100 suffer from bulimia; and 20% of all these girls/women will die prematurely from complications related to their disorders. Proverbs 11:22 tells us that “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. While Proverbs 31:30 says, “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.”

Even worldly success, accomplishments and riches can be meaningless, and often comes with a great price. 41% of 1^st marriages end in divorce and, according to the Children’s Defense Fund, there are close to 13 million latchkey children in the US; children who are left unsupervised while their parents work. 1 Corinthians 3:19 tells us that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” When you see the above statistics, it really brings that scripture home.

As Christians we need to be careful that we don’t buy into the world’s value system. God’s word tells us in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The world wants to conform us, but God wants to transform us. And 2 Corinthians 4:7 tells us that our treasure is in earthen vessels, and that treasure is God Himself, His Holy Spirit, who resides in us. Pontius Pilot asked the crowd to choose between Jesus and Barabbas, and the crowd chose Barabbas. The world will always choose its own. And since Christians are not of this world, the world will never value us. And if we apply the world’s standards to ourselves, we won’t value ourselves either. So we must look to God for our worth, and let His criteria determine our value.

And God does indeed value us. Why? Certainly not because of our physical beauty or our abilities, or our wealth or success.  But because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Because we have been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus. Because we are the very temple of God. And He loves us so greatly. And that love is unconditional, intense and everlasting. It will not—never never never be revoked. He tells us this over and over again in scripture. And here’s what the Bible calls us: joint heirs with Christ—Roman 8:17; heirs of promise—Hebrews 6:17; heirs of the kingdom—James 2:5; heirs of salvation—Hebrews 1:14; more than conquerors—Romans 8:37; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people—1 Peter 2:9. Not only that but God knows the number of hairs on our heads. And before we were born, He called us by name.

What else could we possibly want or need?

As the New Year approaches, let’s move forward in the Lord. Let’s do what the Apostle Paul did in Philippians 3:13-14 “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Let’s begin the New Year by forgetting the mistakes of the past and focus on Jesus. Let’s allow Him to draw us into a deeper love relationship with Him and show us our worth and His great love for us so that we can move into this new season with confidence and soul peace.

Happy New Year. May 2013 be the best, the happiest, the most meaningful year ever!

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

I love the sights, sounds and smells of the Christmas season. And people seem friendlier, happier. They actually stop and smile and wish you a “Merry Christmas,” despite the fact that it’s really not PC anymore. Happy Holidays is more like it. But PC or not, nothing can change the fact that this is the time we celebrate the birth of our Savoir and King.

And wasn’t it just like our wonderful Jesus to enter the world humbly, as a baby born in a hovel that only animals indwelled? It is hard to understand a love like this. Or a God like this. The very one who created the world graciously accepted the fact that the very world He created had so little room for Him.

Before we know it, another Christmas will come and go, and many will forget the One we honor now. Oh how important it is to make room in our heats for the One who loves us unconditionally, the One who will never leave us or forsake us, the One who knows us better than anyone else. Christ-mas is not a season, but a life long commitment and relationship. May we carry Christ and His love in our hearts now and always.

Wishing you all a blessed and Merry Christmas!

Until next time,

Sylvia 

Four men rip the roof off a house then lower a paralytic through the opening. It was the only way they could get to Jesus according to Mark 2:3. Their actions speak volumes, for it reveals their deep belief that Jesus could actually do something for their paralyzed friend. It also speaks of desperation. How long had this man been paralyzed? There’s no way to know for the Bible doesn’t tell us, but it was long enough, and the situation bleak enough, for these men to understand that Jesus was their only hope. If He didn’t do something for their friend, that was it. There were no other options. 

I find Jesus’ response interesting. He was at once impressed by their faith. But the first thing He said was “Son, your sins are forgiven you . . . and you are made upright and in right standing with God” (Mark 2:5 Amplified). This caused no end of grief for some of the scribes who were there and who immediately accursed Him of blaspheming. “Who can forgive sins except God?” they said.

Jesus’ response to them was classic, “Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven and put away, or to say Rise, take up your sleeping pad and start walking about and keep on walking? But that you may know positively and beyond a doubt that the Son of Man has the right and authority and power on earth to forgive sins—He said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, arise, pick up and carry your sleeping pad and be going on home.”

What happened here? Didn’t Jesus understand that the paralytic had come for healing? Yes. But He is a God of order. He loves us and wants us healed and whole. But more than that, He wants to deal with our sin nature and our sins, as only God can, first and most importantly, to reconcile us to Himself, but also because He knows that many times it is our sins that make us sick: the worry, the anger, the strife, the wanton lifestyles, etc. And sometimes before we’re willing to allow God to deal with either our sins or our health issues, we need to become desperate; we need to come to the place where we understand there is no where else to go.

The thing I love about this story is that Jesus didn’t rebuke the paralytic. He didn’t say, “Well, it’s about time you showed up!” Rather He called him “Son” a term of endearment and then followed it with “your sins are forgiven.” I don’t believe God will ever turn away anyone who is desperate for Him. But He may not always respond in the way we want. I’m sure the paralytic was disappointed when Jesus addressed his sin first rather than his physical needs. We always seem to invert what’s important. But the point is that God is there for us. And we don’t have to wait until we become desperate, either, before we seek Him. But for those who are, rest assured you have Someone who is willing and able to bring the needed remedy to your problem or situation. And no matter how He deems to work it out, His first words to you will be “Son” or “Daughter.” And then, in the face of His great love, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to go to Him.

Until next week,

Sylvia

Last week we saw Jesus heal a leper by His touch. This week, in Matthew 8:5-13 He heals a centurion’s servant by His word and praises the centurion for his great faith. I find this just as inspiring as Jesus’ healing touch because it illustrates the power of Jesus’ word. Yes, words are powerful and none more powerful than Jesus’. And since Jesus is the Word, and scripture is the Word of God, we have His very word at our fingertips.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard testimonies from people who, after studying the healing scriptures in the Bible and having it increase their faith, received their healing. God’s Word is powerful. It is alive. It is capable of healing hearts and minds, and, yes, bodies, too.

Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. We need to raise our faith, and believe that God’s word is true. And the only way to do this is by actually reading the Word. Too many Christians don’t know what the Bible says, what it says about them, about God, or the marvelous promises He has made them. And that’s sad because they are depriving themselves of the full life God wants them to have, the “life more abundant.”

I’m not talking about “name it and claim it” theology. I’m talking about building one’s faith by studying God’s word, and understanding not only Who He is, but what He is capable of doing. Then we must bow our knee to God, Who is sovereign, and allow Him to work His perfect will in us.

Psalm 107 19-20 says, “Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” God the Father sent Jesus “by whose stripes ye were healed.” That means you and me, and it means it’s already done, already accomplished.

May God send His word today and heal each and every one of us, and restore us all to a new level of health and wholeness in spirit, mind and body.

Until next time,

Sylvia

 

We next see Jesus encountering a leper in Matthew 8:1-3. And since I already blogged about this over a year ago, I’ll just repost it now.

In Biblical times leprosy was a dreaded disease. It affected skin and nerves, flesh and bones. A leper could have oozing sores and gross disfigurements, especially in the face and hands and feet. Lepers were shunned, driven from society, forced to live outside the community, and denied human contact with non-lepers. And you can well imagine how they smelled!  And when they encountered anyone while walking down a road, they had to cry out “unclean, unclean!” That’s why when a leper approached Jesus in Matthew 8:2 and said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” Jesus’ reaction was so astonishing.  The first thing he did was touch him!  Then He said, “I will; be thou clean.”

Oh, how much this tells us about Jesus! About His heart. His kindness. His love. His mercy. He could just as easily have healed the leper with a word.  Only a few verses later in Matthew 8:5 He does just that for a centurion’s servant. 

Since the Bible is full of types and shadows it’s easy to see that leprosy symbolizes sin. We are all spiritual lepers, and Jesus wants to make us clean, too. And He’s not afraid to put His finger into our puss-filled sores. He’s not afraid to touch the dirty, the defiled places within us. He’s not afraid to look upon our poor spiritual deformity. In fact, He delights in it, delights in healing us, delights in making us what He always envisioned us to be. The wonderful thing is this: God sees us for what we really are, but loves us anyway. And He loves us not because we’re good, but because He is good.

We might as well settle this once and for all. We’ve all sinned and fallen short.  We all need a Savior. Could there be anyone more wonderful or tenderhearted than Jesus? We need not fear committing everything to Him.  And when we do, He will begin to make those ugly wretched places in us, beautiful.

The question is, do we have the courage to let Him?

Until next week,

Sylvia

Right after Jesus told everyone what a blessed life looked like, He continued with His radical teachings (Matthew chapters 5 to 7). I wonder what the people thought when He told them things like, they were the salt of the earth and if they lost their saltiness they were not good for anything but to be trodden underfoot? Or that they were the light of the world and shouldn’t hide their light because it gives praise and glory to God? Or that He had not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it? I imagine their heads were spinning. But Jesus didn’t stop there but continued with His University of Life, as it were. Their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Was that even possible? And they shouldn’t bother offering a gift to God if they were angry at their brother.

And then came the really radical stuff. Just lusting after someone other than their husband or wife was adultery. And divorce was out except for the case of adultery. Forget it if their wife burned their dinner every night. They could no longer issue a bill of divorcement. They had to live with it. Next came the swearing of oaths. No more swearing. Just let “yes” be “yes.” And then the hair curler: Love your enemies! Do good to them who hate and persecute you! I imagine they were really squirming in their seats by then. After all, hadn’t life taught them that might made right and one should give as good as he got? You know, the “eye for an eye” thing. Now this Nazarene was not only telling them to love their enemies, but if they didn’t forgive everyone who had ever hurt them or done them wrong then God can’t forgive them either! What? Surely the only reason Jesus could say this was because He didn’t know their Aunt Mable or have Mr. Scrooge as a boss. If Jesus only knew what they had to put up, surely He wouldn’t be asking this of them!

But wait, it gets worse. Jesus goes on to say they and, by extension, we can’t serve two masters. It’s got to be either possessions, riches and whatever else we trust in or Him. Just Him. And He says stop finding fault with others. Stop looking at that little speck in their eye while we have a great big beam hanging out of ours. Stop judging or we’ll be judged.

Jesus goes on to talk about so many things. All hard, all radical. And then the clincher. If we want to follow Him we have to enter through the narrow gate. For only the narrow gate leads to life while the wide gate leads to destruction. Oh wait! That sounds so restricting. Does that mean we can’t do our own thing?

Finally, He wraps up these life lessons by saying that we will know each other by the fruit we bear. Good trees will bear good fruit and every tree that does not will be “cut down and cast into the fire,” and only those who do the will of the Father will enter into the kingdom of heaven. That’s heavy. That gives one pause. That takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation and removes all wiggle room. But then Jesus ends with a wonderful promise. Everyone who learns His life lessons and applies them are building a house on solid rock that neither the adverse rains nor winds of life will be able to destroy. But not so the others. Those who do not follow His admonitions are building their house on sand, subject to the elements and “great and complete was the fall of it.”

There’s so much here in these lessons of Jesus. And without Him, they are all completely impossible to apply with any real measure of success. But the Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and that He who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are His workmanship and He’ll never give up on us. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to do this on our own?

Until next time,

Sylvia