Satisfied Saint

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

(Romans 8:28)

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this was very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him stay. Everyone was very happy at the farmer’s good luck. “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?”

In Philippians 4 Paul speaks of being content in whatever situation comes your way. At the time Paul was in prison. Paul was often in bad situations, hard work, frequently in prison, been severely flogged, been exposed to death again and again, five times he received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one…thanks for that “minus one”, three times he was beaten with rods, once he was stoned, three times he was shipwrecked & spent a night and a day in the open sea. He was constantly on the move, he has been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from his own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. He labored and toiled and often went without sleep, he has known hunger and thirst and has often gone without food, (I’m writing this while eating a yeast roll & I’m not even hungry), he has been cold and naked, (now I do have clothes on), besides all else, he faced daily the pressure of his deep concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). In short…well not really in short…Paul knew a bad situation when he saw one. But in all that he went through, he was content & truly lived Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. In our days to come, we need to remember those words, no matter what comes our way.

Vern

Power

“…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man…”
(Ephesians 3:16)

Dreaming that I was a big movie star with the paparazzi flashing photos of me as I ran out of my favorite restaurant quickly went away when a loud boom of thunder along with more flashes of lightning woke me up awhile back. I woke up just in time to notice the ceiling fan slowly coming to a stop…yep, my power was out. I got up & stumbled through the darkness looking for the flashlight that I keep somewhere in the house for just these type of emergencies. I finally found it, then found my cell phone, called the power company, then set the alarm on my phone & went back to bed.


As I was lying there I started thinking about how dark & quiet it was, everything was almost lifeless, well all except for the nervous Shitzu that had nudged right up against me shaking like she was swallowing razor blades, but other than that the house seemed dead. The only life it seemed was outside. The booming thunder, the flashing lightning, the pouring rain & gusts of wind made me realize that God is so unbelievably powerful.


In Ephesians 3:16, Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit who dwells inside all believers…is God & His power. Lying in bed I thought of what an unsaved person must feel like: No God, no power, just dark & lifeless inside, only seeing the power of God…but never experiencing it.


The next thing I knew I was waking up to my phone alarm, I got up flipped on the light & oh yea…power! Not just outside, but inside as well. That’s what happens when we wake up & accept Jesus; we are filled with His power & illuminated with his wonderful light.
Is your power on? If not, come to Christ for salvation, (Romans 10:9)

Vern

When Pigs Fly

“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.”
(Mark 5:16-17)

I was asked a question the other day, “What is the significance of `swine` being the animal the demons were cast into?” I believe Biblically there is no actual reason or hidden meaning behind the swine being the recipients of the demons, or at least the Bible does not tell us of one. But it does show us that Jesus was more concerned with the welfare of the man than with the welfare of the pigs. Now the people of the surrounding town that came back with the pig herders didn’t give a rip about the man or his soul, they only cared about what happened to their pigs. The man that had been a longtime tormented with these evil spirits was now free, they all saw & noticed that he was clothed & in his right mind, a man that they had tried to tie up & contain but couldn’t. But even with that, all they cared about was their pigs…yea their pigs. 

They even wanted Jesus gone from their area. They wanted to trade the security, comfort, peace, love, and joy… everything that they would ever need for an abundant life…for nasty, smelly swine. They loved those pigs more than Jesus, they were scared of Him…so were the demons. But notice that the man who was freed from his torment wasn’t afraid; he wanted to be around Jesus more.

Maybe that is the meaning of this ordeal…so often we would rather have our nasty, smelly, rotten sin in place of Jesus. We see Jesus as restrictive, as no fun…we see our sin as freeing & fun, when in fact nothing could be farther from the truth. Sin is always what binds us, what holds us captive. Just like the demon possessed man was held captive by the demons within him, Jesus was the only one who could totally free him & when Jesus truly frees you…you want to be with Him, the closer the better, the closer the more free you are.

I also have often thought that when these people couldn’t control this man or cure him, they just gave up on him…left him to live naked among the dead in the graveyard. I can see one guy who lived in the town saying to another as they watched this wild man off in the distance screaming & cutting himself with stones, “That crazy nut will get better…when pigs fly!” Now that’s not Biblical, that’s just a little “Vernology”. But that day pigs flew and he was free.

Vern