Dwelling on that which enslaves... and He who frees

This fella Legion has captured the attention of many of us as we looked at Mark 5 last week and tomorrow. And it has me thinking and praying about our addictive behaviors... and the love & power of Christ.

I . . . was bound not by an iron imposed by anyone else but by the iron of my own choice. The enemy had a grip on my will and so made a chain for me to hold me a prisoner. The consequence of a distorted will is passion. By servitude to passion*, habit is formed, and habit to which there is no resistance becomes necessity. By these links . . . connected one to another . . . a harsh bondage held me under restraint. --Augustine

*(passion for anything--- diamonds or drugs, position or power, grades or times, relationships, etc)


Batter my heart... John Donne

Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend

Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,

Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,

Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.

Yet dearley'I love you,'and would be loved faine,

But am betroth'd unto your enemie:

Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe,

Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I

Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,

Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

Thursdays with John Owen

On Thursdays I meet for an hour for prayer, accountability, laughter, etc with 3 other men. We are reading together through a book by John Owen called, Of The Mortification of Sin in Believers... this book was written about 300 years ago and speaks of things we all wrestled with this morning. It is basically one long meditation on Romans 8:13:

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Owen has thrown cold water on us... reminding of us that we have an enemy and the sooner we realize it the better. He asks, "Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work to fight sin? Are you seeking to be always at it while you live? To cease not a day from this work? Be killing sin or it will be killing you." (You can get the book, under cover with 2 others for a cheap rate here: )

links on demons

what are demons?--Demons, very good& brief article by J.I. Packer here

I'll try to point you to resources in case there is something you want/need to pursue more info on....
--Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks.... you can probalby get a paperback for $5 or read it online here


i haven't gone thru these... but both men I trust and respect... so this would be a good start

Spiritual Warfare Part 1 - God's Control Over Demons
Vern Poythress (mp3)

Spiritual Warfare Part 2 - God's Redemption from Demons
Vern Poythress (mp3)

Spiritual Warfare Part 3 - God's Empowering to Fight Demons
Vern Poythress (mp3)

Demons
Sam Storms

Defeat of Devil-Demons
Sam Storms

Doors to Demonization
Sam Storms

Nature of Demonization
Sam Storms

"Go and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." Jesus in Mark 5

"Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me." (Psalm 27:7)

I stand before you with shoulders bent and hands that are empty... I am quite aware of the
duplicity of my heart,
the evil of my choices,
and the failure of my behavior,
but I am not afraid
because I stand before you
with one argument,
with one plea.
This argument is enough.
This plea is sufficient.
This argument is the only thing
that could ever give me
courage,
rest,
and sturdy hope.
So I come before you
with this plea;

your mercy.

Your mercy is my rest.
Your mercy is my hope.
Your mercy makes me bold.
Your mercy is all I need.
Your mercy
tells me you will hear.
Your mercy
tells me you will act.
Your mercy
tells me you will forgive.
Your mercy
tells me you will restore.
Your mercy
tells me you will strengthen.
Your mercy is my
welcome,
plea,
and my rescue.
I rest in this one thing,
You are mercy
and
You will answer. ---Paul Tripp (entire post/prayer here)

The Health & Wealth of the Community

Sarah Hamersma is leading a reading group that looks intriguing.

When the Adulteress Went Home

After Jesus rescued the adulteress from stoning in John 8, have you ever wondered what it was like for her to go home?
this brief article is mainly about freedom from guilt and confidence in Christ... a quote
When I… feel guilty… and hopeless because of yesterday's failure… I need the grace of forgiveness based on a great past substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, that covers all my sins… and I need the grace of promised help from Jesus today and tomorrow.
--John Piper ... (whole article go home)

Labor of Love Live

Perhaps a new favorite Christmas song of mine...


great lyric...
It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother’s hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David’s town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

U2 and Francis Schaeffer

random collection here..but Both of these are important... you might can live without the U2 but not the schaeffer...

U2 movie in 3D
Schaeffer quote:
“If we have sinned, it is wonderful consciously to say, ‘Thank you for a completed work,’ after we have brought that specific sin under the finished work of Christ. The conscious giving of thanks brings assurance and peace. We say, ‘Thank you’ for work completed upon the cross, which is sufficient for a completely restored relationship.

This isn’t on the basis of my emotions, any more than in my justification. The basis is the finished work of Christ in history and the objective promises of God in the written Word. If I believe Him, and if I believe what He has taught me about the sufficiency of the work of Christ for restoration, I can have assurance, no matter how black the blot has been. This is the Christian reality of salvation from one’s conscience.

For myself, through the thirty years or so since I began to struggle with this in my own life, I picture my conscience as a big black dog with enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific sin has been dealt with on basis of Christ’s finished work, then I should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, ‘Down! Be still!’ I am to believe God and be quiet.”
- Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

The Lewis quote about 200 years from now

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other destinations." lewis (full quote)

Women's Morning Bible Study STARTING NOW

Lost Women of The Bible... I know what you are thinking... "At least they'd ask for directions!"
Starts today... Tuesday Jan 15

• January 15-March25
  Tuesday Mornings @ 9:30-11:00am
  @ The home of Tara Gallagher (Map)
  "Lost Women of The Bible" by Carolyn James
  Led by: Rebecca Schackow & Lizette Crosson
• All women are invited to come and join us as we study the women of the Bible,
  and how they relate to us today.
  Childcare is provided, but please call Leslie Marshall to let her know you will be using the childcare so that we may have a better count for supervision (332.8336).

Calvin quote on Mark 5

In the person of one man Christ has exhibited to us a proof of his grace, which is extended to all mankind. Though we are not tortured by the devil, yet he holds us as his slaves, till the Son of God delivers us from his tyranny. Naked, torn, and disfigured, we wander about, till he restores us to soundness of mind. It remains that, in magnifying his grace, we testify our gratitude. --John Calvin on Mark 5

How Demons Work

C.S. Lewis, in his book "Screwtape Letters" pictures an experienced demon (Screwtape) mentoring his nephew, Wormwood, in how to be an effective demon... He does this through writing letters... this one on how to keep a new Christian from following “The Enemy” (who for demons is the living God).

“My dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves…. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.” --CS Lewis

In The Problem with Pain, C.S. Lewis states that people will “enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved.”

C.S. Lewis fans

This is a cool website where you can read articles about C.S. Lewis...

Charitable Giving Statements

FYI, the financial powers-at-be tell me that they are sending out the documents of 2007 giving this week... which will smoke the January 31 deadline the gov't requires.

Reformed University Ministry--RUF

RUF launches Tuesday and Steve is teaching through the I Am's of John's gospel.

Any students who are not already connected with a campus ministry should check this out.

George Washington

Last week i was reading a book with my 6yr old, i think it was called, THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF VIRTUES... and it had a nice little thing about how George Washington was fighting a losing cause early in the war. GW goes out to pray and some fellow overheard his prayers and returned home to his wife and said:

The colonists will win the war. I have just heard George Washington praying and God will answer his prayers because he is so brave. Now, I love George Washington... and i'm glad (and proud) to be an American... but i couldn't let that go. I asked: Do you think God answers his prayers because he was brave? Why would God listen to anyone? I recommended Jesus to my son as his (and his dad's!) only hope, but not very eloquently. Well, here is what I should have told my son:

“It is the gospel that makes prayer possible. Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, by whom justification and sanctification are promised, is also the Mediator who makes your prayers accepted by the Father (Hebrews 4:15-16). The Holy Spirit, who gives you the new birth, who unites you to Christ, who sanctifies you, and who shows you the things of Christ, is a Spirit of prayer (Zechariah 12:10, Galatians 4:6). He is like a fire inflaming your soul, and He makes you mount upward in prayer to God. Prayerless people are dead to God('s goodness and power).”

--Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

I believe the gospel... for you, not myself

“I don’t have a hard time believing the Gospel is true…for you. God loves you and accepts you and wants to do good to you. The problem is, I have such a hard time believing it’s true for me. Luther nailed it when he said that we are born with an inborn suspicion that God is not for us. Like a bass note in a terrific song, I battle almost daily the constant thumping that because of my failures, sins, and selfishness, I do not have God’s favor. He seems to be never satisfied. So what is the answer? How do I keep on keeping on? The life and death of Jesus tells me that the lie is just that, a lie. God is satisfied because He was satisfied with Jesus; and I am in Him and He is in me. That’s the antidote to the inborn suspicion—the Father is for me, because of the cross of Jesus. So daily, it’s a fight of faith; to believe the Gospel is true for me.” -Tom Wood

Demons & Pigs & Jesus

asking about the relationship between the demons and the pigs: Once Jesus has forced the demons to name themselves, they know defeat is immanent and they grovel. Apparently the most
the demons can hope for is to be left in their home territory rather than being
banished to the wilderness or to ruins. (These places were considered dangerous
to human beings because demons wandering and lurking in such places were
desperate for human hosts.) While demons would not normally want animal
hosts, Jesus was now master of their fate, so they bargained. It seems likely that
Jesus was able to accomplish a dual purpose. Banishing the demons permanently
and ridding the territory of an animal that since Moses was unclean to Jews.
When the demons enter the pigs, they immediately rush down a steep slope into
the lake. Animals have no resistance to the demons’ great urge to destroy life.
Mark writes nothing about the spirits leaving the pigs and therefore, we are to think that they remain in the water. Other ancient literature leads us to believe that demons considered this fate worse than having no host at all. --from the Mark Study Guide of Redeemer PCA in Manhattan

No matter how scared you are... DO NOT ask Jesus to leave you

Mark 5 they ask Jesus to leave and He does. The idea that Jesus might go away if you ask him to has terrifying implications. --Jeff White

Evil, Suffering, and Our Joy

If heaven is a compensation for all the stuff you have always wanted but never going to have, that is one thing, but if the new heavens and new earth is our hope, and it is - and therefore we have a restoration of everything you ever wanted - the new heavens and new earth will make every horrible thing you every experienced nothing but a nightmare… and as a nightmare will do nothing but infinitely, correspondingly, increase your future joy in glory, in a way that it wouldn’t have been increased if you had never suffered it. And that is the ultimate defeat of evil. To say evil is an illusion or that you are going to be compensated for it is one thing, but to say that evil will be in the end the servant of your joy - that’s astounding. The Christian hope does not just compensate you for your suffering, it undoes it - it absolutely undoes it. Our momentary affliction achieves an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. --Tim Keller