Wednesday - January 31, 2024

The Reverend Dr. Neil G. Thomas

SCRIPTURE


Mark 5. 1-20


Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man


They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.


When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”


Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”


“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.


A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.


Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.


As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.


WORDS OF HOPE


At first glance, this scripture seems a little weird. Jesus arrives on the other side of the sea and is confronted by a man who has made his home among the tombs, among the dead. This is his environment and his expectation based of his circumstances and Jesus meets him. Mark says that the man fell to his knees at the sight of Jesus and is confronted by his own question, “What do you want from me?” In the ensuing conversation Jesus offers him freedom from the impure spirits that had tormented him and sends them into surrounding pigs who run off, rushing down a steep bank and into a lake where they are drowned.


Those who witnessed these events, those who saw the impact of Jesus’ encounter with the man were both confused and perhaps frightened, asking Jesus to leave their region. The man is left to witness to his own people just what Jesus had done for him and, with his testimony, the people were amazed.


Of course, as with all Scripture you must be able to contextualize them within the times that they are written. Pigs are not kosher and the book of Deuteronomy states that the Israelites shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcass. In their tradition they are unclean, and it is understandable why pigs are used in this miracle.


The bigger story, for me, in this miracle is in the question that the man asks of Jesus, ““What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” While this is a question from within him, from the “legion”, this is a question that is vital for us all.


We are so often taught a theology of asking God for things. This is not a bad thing. In my daily prayers I often find myself asking God for things, for answers, for other people to be blessed. However, it is less regular that I sit in my own life and ask God to tell me what God wants from me. Is this your story as well?


The more I thought about this today, the more I realized that perhaps, if I spent more time asking God this question, perhaps I would have more clarity for my life and my vocational work.


Believe me, I am grateful to a God who has often rescued me from numerous situations that could lead me on a destructive path or a path that is not beneficial. I am grateful to God who has offered me ways to follow the call that I believe that God has placed in front of me. I am grateful to God who reminds me every day that my everyday actions can make a difference. Today, I am convicted by the question what more can I do for God and what does God want from me.


The conclusion of this story is a testimony to what happens when you are listening to God’s response to our question. For the man in the story, he found wholeness and healing. He found a new life that bore testimony to others, leading them to belief in Jesus.


Friends, our story is a testimony for others and Jesus calls us to live our story – a story that is still evolving and not yet finished. However, this story has an impact and will help others to see your changed life. This is the miracle.


In the words of one of my favorite hymns, Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now I’m found.”


May we take a moment, amid our asking God for blessings, to also ask God, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”


PRAYER


God, thank you for your faithfulness toward me, hearing my prayers and responding to my needs. Hear me today, O God, as I ask You – What do you want from me? Amen.


DEVOTION AUTHOR


The Reverend Dr. Neil G. Thomas

Senior Pastor

Pronouns: he/his/him

Need More Inspiration? Read our Daily Devotions

Monday - August 25, 2025

By Donald (Luke) Day • August 25, 2025
READING "You can be sure if you have to walk on a stony life path, God will provide you with strong shoes." -Corrie Ten Boom WORDS OF HOPE Do you sometimes feel you have been walking on life’s stony path far too long? You are not alone. In times as chaotic and uncertain as ours, the Christian writer, Corrie Ten Boom is one of my most often read spiritual mentors. In the 1940’s, during Nazi control of her city of Amsterdam, her parents’ home provided shelter and care for many Jewish families until her family was betrayed and sent to a concentration camp. She was able to survive though her family tragically died there. Years later, in adult life, she became a Christian author and world-wide lecturer. We are painfully aware through her story that becoming a Christian does not guarantee us an easy life. We suffer the slings and arrows of adversity like everyone else. Like others, our bodies are frail and subject to accidents and disease. However, we do have a loving God who journeys through life with us, providing guidance and care. Earlier humanity which worshiped stone or wooden gods could only imagine that those divine images or idol of their gods understood life's pain and difficulty. In contrast to that uncertainty, Christians are reassured by the living example of Jesus who actually walked among us: who loved, cared, rejoiced, and wept with his followers. We know that our journey through life's hardships is not a solo trek; rather, we can trust in the steady presence and helping hand of Christ. In her book, Tramp for the Lord, Ten Boom observes: "Happiness is not dependent on certain events happening; rather, on relationships in those happenings." Truly entrusting ourselves to Christ insures that we will be equipped and strengthened to handle the obstacles we may encounter. We will be given strong and durable walking shoes. However, it's our choice either to put them on or reject them and continue life in flip-flops! PRAYER Lord Christ, I give you my love and thanks that on my life's journey you desire to be with me to guide and comfort. Thank you for the assurance that you walk hand-in-hand with me and will in my final steps draw me to your eternal self. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Donald (Luke) Day Order of St. Francis and St.Clare

Friday - August 22, 2025

By Thomas McClellan • August 22, 2025
SCRIPTURE Proverbs 23:5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. WORDS OF HOPE God My Provider A person will work their whole life getting richer, and by the end of their life, never know what it was to be rich. Why spend years for what you will only enjoy for days? So long as we have time, we have wealth, for a person’s happiness is in how they remember their time. Seeing as no one knows how much time they have can anyone afford to waste it? We lack time more than we lack money. The one who has little is not poor and the one who has much is not rich, but the one who finds happiness is satisfied. There are people living in mansions who cannot buy it and there are people living in clay houses who would never sell it. If you can count it, if you can measure it, then its value is limited. Happiness can neither be counted nor measured; by this, we know that it is priceless. Therefore, do not waste your wealth, that is your time, on trying to be wealthy. For once the money is spent, you will need more. Many people never enjoy peace because they think that they do not have enough money. They forget that its very purpose is to be spent, and if not spent by them, then by someone else after they are gone. No one keeps their money. Life does not begin when you have it, but when you wake up and begin your day. At the start of the day, we are gifted with time. How will we spend it? God has already considered everything that we need so that we may have peace in the world. Be at rest, for God will provide. PRAYER Jehovah Jireh, Bless You for the gift of life. We could never pay You back for the time You have given us. Yet sometimes, we fear not having enough. Help us to appreciate what we already have in You so that we may enjoy our time. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Jonathon McClellan Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Thursday - August 21, 2025

By Dan Peeler • August 21, 2025
SCRIPTURE John 5.3-9  In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate at the pool, a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. WORDS OF HOPE It’s August, the month in Texas when many of us look to a refreshing dip in the pool as our savior from the heat! The Savior’s pool mentioned in today’s scripture lesson was thought to have genuinely miraculous healing powers by the people of Jerusalem. It was visited often by the infirm. The man who was not able to walk would have been a typical visitor. His exchange with Jesus is interesting on several levels and inspires some questions. Had the man actually been coming to the pool for thirty-eight years? If so, who had been bringing him there since he could not walk? Couldn’t they also have carried him into the pool and not just deposited him there beside it? When Jesus asks if he wants to get well, instead of enthusiastically saying “yes”, he immediately starts making excuses about why he has not been able to get into the water, saying that no one will help him in and besides, everyone else breaks in line ahead of him. All in all, it’s simply not his fault. Everyone else is to blame. I’m sure you are not one of them, but I have known a lot of people throughout the years who are masters at making excuses. I could list a few politicians. George Washington Carver once said, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” You probably know a few expert excuse-makers, too. They are usually people who, consciously or subconsciously, want to fail. Failure requires a great deal less work than success. Jesus’ reply to the invalid is succinct. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” He didn’t waste time commiserating with the man about the cruel fate that surrounds him or condemning the selfish attitudes of the other pool patrons. He didn’t give the man a chance to elaborate on his excuses. It would seem that the man was shocked into action because not only was he immediately cured, but he also didn’t need any magic water to do it. Are you prepared to let Jesus shock you into action today? Are you ready to share the priceless gift of encouragement with someone who is discouraged, despondent, and down to their last excuse? Jesus didn’t judge or care about excuses. He just did what needed to be done. Considering the amounts of circumstances in all of our lives that are catalysts for excuses, you’ll probably have the opportunity soon to give someone a helpful nudge, too. PRAYER May we always follow the example of Jesus, being healers and never contributors to the adverse circumstances of life. As your followers, we have no excuses. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dan Peeler Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Wednesday - August 20, 2025

By Hardy Haberman • August 20, 2025
SCRIPTURE Isaiah 27: 1 On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. WORDS OF HOPE The image of slaying dragons is a strong one and perhaps something that might work better in a fantasy book than scripture, but Isaiah was a prophet. Prophets often spoke in fantastic imagery and it does what he intended in my opinion, he got our attention. He is speaking of a future time when Israel is reestablished, and the Temple is rebuilt. It is a passage that is intended to bring hope to those who are oppressed and exiled. Perhaps we can look on it in more personal terms. We all have dragons in our lives that need slaying. Leviathans of worry, debt, depression, illness; creatures that can take over our lives and block out everything else. I listen to Isaiah and hear a message of hope, that with God’s guidance, I can get through whatever troubles I face. I might not triumph over them, but I can take away their overwhelming power and relegate them to a more realistic perspective. I can live my life following God’s path and let those dragons take care of themselves. PRAYER May I find the strength God gives me and may it be present in my every waking hour. DEVOTION AUTHOR Hardy Haberman

Tuesday - August 19, 2025

By Weber Baker • August 19, 2025
SCRIPTURE  Acts 7: 44-53 Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling-place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?” ‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.’ WORDS OF HOPE Sometimes we have a propensity for seeing God as very small. We wish to shrink God into a box that fits our biases and prejudices. We all heard this said in sermons and teachings before. And I will admit that sometimes I do this still. And even though the passage above talks about the Israelites shrinking God into a temple, it is still tiny compared to the size of what God has made. At least that seems to be the meaning of the first part of this quotation. The juxtaposition of words about fitting God into a small space directly before a rebuke for not listening to the Holy Spirit is not accidental, I think. Just saying that the listeners are uncircumcised in heart and ears is a clear message. Circumcision was a sign of belonging in the Jewish tradition. Being uncircumcised in heart and ear is a metaphor for not understanding or not truly accepting the teachings of Jesus. It is a greater rebuke because it implies, to me, that not accepting or living by the example of Jesus is the same as murdering him. Just as the prophets of more ancient times were betrayed and murdered. Indeed, although not specifically mentioned here one would throw in John the baptizer as a prophet or contemporary to the writer of this passage and those listening. So perhaps trying to fit God into a little box whether that box is as large as a temple or a small as our own imagination, has more to do with putting ourselves in a box, and thinking that the box has God in it with us. PRAYER Gracious God, the universe that You have made is vast, and yet we know in our hearts that even that cannot contain You. Break us out of the boxes that we put ourselves in when we try to restrain you to a world of our making. DEVOTION AUTHOR Weber Baker. Order of Saint Francis in Saint Clare

Monday - August 18, 2025

By Thomas Riggs • August 18, 2025
SCRIPTURE Proverbs 4:17-18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble. WORDS OF HOPE As an adverb, the word “just” is one of my least favorite words: You’re not hurt… It’s just a scratch. Why are you upset? I was just making a joke. It’s just four easy payments of $49.99. Can you just wait a minute? While the adjective form of the word just can mean exactly (as in “That’s just what I needed”) or recently (“She just left the room”), it drives me crazy when it's used to mean only or merely. In this usage, the word just is minimizing and deceitful. Whether is shows up in everyday speech or in advertising, when the word just is included, I tend to feel defensive or put on notice. As an adjective, however, the word just is one of my most favorite words: She is a just leader who treats everyone fairly. This was a just judgement that brought equity to the situation. The path of the just is like the shining sun. In these two verses from Proverbs, the writer paints a picture of the life of a just or righteous person as a journey that grows clearer, brighter, and better over time—just like the sun rising from dawn to full daylight. It suggests spiritual growth, clarity, and increasing blessing for those who walk in God's ways. Whereas verse 19 shows the life of the wicked: one of stumbling, confusion, and distance from truth, often without awareness. It’s a vivid metaphor—light vs. darkness, clarity vs. confusion, and wisdom vs. folly. I’m struck by the divergent paths in these verses: One filled with the growing light of a sunrise and the other shrouded in deep darkness. As we walk with God, She makes our path clearer and clearer, like dawn to noontime. When we walk apart from God, it’s total and utter darkness, stumbling and disconnected. If we would but just seek wisdom, clarity, and purpose, God invites you to walk the path of the righteous. It doesn’t mean perfection—but direction. It’s about walking toward the light, trusting that it will grow brighter with each step. PRAYER Lord, lead me on the path of righteousness, where Your light shines ever brighter and guides my every step. Keep me from the darkness that causes confusion and stumbling and help me walk in the clarity of Your truth. DEVOTION AUTHOR Thomas Riggs
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