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About 3:15 on a cloudy, but warm Sunday afternoon. I spent the past week in Brattleboro with Mike. He arrived last Saturday, the 8th, and planned on attending church with me Sunday morning. But, as I'm learning, Mike's decisions can be very random and last minute. (Not ideal for a "planner" like me, but I love him anyway) So when I got up that morning, he mentioned that he had an idea that I may not like, but it made sense to him. Rather than going to church in a building, with people, he felt a need to connect with God in Nature. Instead of leaving after church, we left shortly after breakfast and stopped briefly at Chesterfield Gorge. We pass by the parking lot every time we go that way, so it's not out of the way literally at all. We would likely have stopped for more than 10 minutes, but the path down to the lower falls was waaay too icy still. It was a peaceful week and good to get away for a bit. And tbh, I really didn't mind going there instead of Church. I enjoy connecting with God in Nature as well, at times. (Thus my frequent walks to nearby parks)
In local news, Andrea's husband, Matt, had a rough week. He had been doing well enough the first of the month that they were planning on sending him home. He was alert, joking, helping Andrea edit her book, etc... all looked good last Saturday. At some point on Sunday, going into Monday, it was like someone flipped the "off" switch. They didn't lose him, but all the joking and editing help was suddenly not there. He had nothing for communication other than his distress grunting, which, according to Andrea's FB post, was nearly constant. Until it wasn't. By late Monday or early Tuesday, he was fine again. The latest, as far as I know directly from messaging with her last night, is that Matt should be home today. Continued prayers for his total recovery from the series of strokes he suffered 2 yrs ago last Thanksgiving. <3 (I may be over to help again on Tuesday. She'll let me know.)
The saga with my parents continues. I don't have the latest yet, but at this point, no news still equals bad news. If the "extras" had left yet, I feel like Carissa would have told me. In my last post, I mentioned the possibility of my mother and I sharing a 2 bedroom apartment. After talking with Mike about this, he's willing for the 2 of us to share a place with her. He doesn't want to have to wait until "someday" for us to be living in the same space. He needs more of me than random visits and a few video chats every day. While Carissa is definitely looking at getting my father into the Veteran's Home, there are fewer options for my mother. She is showing clear signs of dementia, as is my father, but the question of how far things have to be advanced in order to have her placed in a Memory Care facility and have Medicaid/Medicare pay for it, has yet to be answered.* I have also informed my ex-husband of Mike's and my willingness to share a space with her. He proceeded to remind me that my mother HATES Mike. In return, I reminded him that she would hate anyone I was with if it's not my ex-boyfriend, Rob. I also mentioned about the Care Facility issue and the fact that she may not have a choice but to stay with me and Mike. It could be the option of us or the streets. Time will tell, but prayers are definitely appreciated for wisdom and provision. (As I mentioned previously, the County Nursing Home is not likely to be an option due to expense)
Meanwhile, no news is good news from my son, Benjamin. This means that he has no immediate plans to head out to Indiana to help his ex-wife with her health issues. (At the same time, you can view both his and Rich's birthday cards on that page of my site.)
And we now return to our regularly scheduled programming -- lol
I've been experiencing something the past couple of nights that I don't really talk about on here for fear that it may discredit me to some readers.* The thing is, in briefly reviewing today's message earlier in order to determine the focus of this Intro paragraph, I saw a connection and felt I needed to use it here.
On January 4th, 2021, my ex-husband, Rich, moved back to Maine to live with his father after having lost his mother in May of 2020. That was the day our family cat, Kyra, was re-homed to stay with me. She was about
14 1/2 yrs old. Exactly one year later, she died. Early last year, I felt her presence on my bed. I felt her jump up, walk around, and settle down to cuddle at my lower legs or my feet. She did this for several nights in a row. Friday night, and again last night, she showed up again. I try to stay calm about it, knowing that she's not here to harm me, but I've ended up on the couch both nights so far. I don't know if she doesn't bother me out here due to the lack of space on my love seat, (which, even at 5'1", I have to curl up to fit) compared with my king size bed, or if she's restricted somehow to the bedroom. In either case, the connection with today's message is the fact that the spiritual realm is just as real as the physical and it's only to our detriment to ignore or reject that truth.* It was the timing of this message in relation to Kyra's visit that also struck me. It might not simply be the fact that her carrier, toys, and food/water dishes are still in my closet. It may also be that I would have this story at hand to share.
Turn with me, if you will, to our Scripture for this series -- Mark 1. Today's passage is verses 21-34.
Mark 1:21-34
New International Version
Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Jesus Heals Many
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
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As we've observed over the past couple of CenterPoint messages, this series focuses on the Kingdom of God and the various aspects of it as connected with our Scripture passage. First, we had the Kingdom Promise. This spoke to the Covenant Promise to David back in 2 Samuel 7. One of many predictions throughout the Old Testament that God would one day send Messiah (Jesus). Secondly, we explored the idea of who we should be as Kingdom People. Today, we will look at the fact, as indicated by my story above, that the spiritual realms, and those who inhabit them, are not only real, but nothing to be trifled with.
Being that this was Advent Season, the candle-lighting passage was from Isaiah 66:1-3. This portion of Scripture is entitled "Judgement and Hope". In re-reading it just now, my Catholic readers would do well to focus on the bit in verse 3 about "those who burn memorial incense" and what God had to say about the lot of people, including them, who are listed prior to that.
Just to preface this message, it was delivered by both Pastor Matt and Joe. As per usual, when I'm behind like this on a message I attended in person, I don't remember who said what other than the fact that Pastor Matt always opens. (With the exception of personal stories shared, of course)
In this message, we come to the point where we see the Kingdom of God breaking into the world in the power of Jesus to exorcize demons.
As Pastor Matt opened, he emphasized the point that the Kingdom brings healing, wholeness, and freedom in it's wake.* We see evidence of this as Jesus drives out the impure spirit from the man in the Synagogue.
Verse 21 reveals that this incident happened on the Sabbath. Let's pause here and look for the deeper significance in this. Back in Genesis chapter 1, we have the original pattern of God Creating for 6 days and resting. We should be struck by one detail. While the first 6 days begin with evening and go into the next morning, the 7th day DOESN'T END. What!!?? That's right, all it says for Day 7 is "God rested". That's it. Full stop. End of that story. God essentially "settled into His Creation" like we do after we move to a new place. We carry stuff in, unpack it, organize it, and we rest. This is our space now. We pay for it, it's our to do with as we please. (Unless restricted by rental rules, of course) But the point remains. This is where we live from that point on until/unless we move again. We settle in to what belongs to us. We inhabit the space we have invested in. It was brought to light here that God repeats this pattern to various degrees later. We see this during the Exodus, particularly at Mt. Sinai when He presented Moses with the 10 Commandments.
While God established the Sabbath, His people were commanded to keep it. This was meant to be a sign of God's renewal as we rest in God's love. In our passage above, Jesus now has authority over the Sabbath and was able to enact/dictate what it meant.*
In verse 24, we take notice of the fact that the demons knew Who Jesus was. Back in the book of Isiah, we see the term, "Holy One of God" or "Holy One of Israel" used frequently to refer to Messiah, Who was/is, Jesus. This, along with the Fall of Satan from Heaven (Rev. 12:7-12), makes it clear that the demons have had a long history of knowing Who Jesus was/is.
The Greek word Jesus used in telling the demon to "be quiet" is the same one we would use for "muzzle". You want to make sure your dog doesn't bark/bite, you put a muzzle on it. The same word is also used in Mark 4 when Jesus calms the storm. He essentially told the wind to "put a muzzle on it!!"*
Skipping back to verse 22, we see that the people recognized Jesus' teaching to hold authority as opposed to the Teachers of the Law who merely interpreted it. As we read down through the rest of the passage, we see that His authority also extended to the healing of physical ailments with Peter's mother-in-law.*
It was also mentioned here that, in our Western Culture, observing Sabbath is seen as odd. (although it occurs to me that college professors often take sabbaticals, so there's that...) But the overall view is that "time is money, so there's no time to rest". It's also odd for us Westerners to recognize the demonic as a real thing. (more on this in a few)
Turning back, once again, to Genesis 1, we find God's invitation to Adam and Eve to rule and reign with Him. As we read through into chapter 3, it's interesting to note the significance of the serpent in Ancient Cultures. Originally, the snake was seen as a sign of protection and wisdom.* This is why Eve didn't question him when he suggested that God was "holding out" on them.*
God's invitation is supported by Gen. 1:26 when He says, "Let us make man in our image..."* The invitation involves "image bearer" language, carrying with it the Authority of God Himself. As it was mentioned here, CS Lewis shows an understanding of this in the Chronicles of Narnia stories. In providing thrones to each child, Aslan was inviting them to help rule His Kingdom. When Adam and Eve sinned, they abdicated the metaphorical thrones God had given them. They gave authority over to Satan and began exhibiting "beastly behavior". They became ruled by their appetites. The example given here was of a bear raiding a bird feeder. The truth is, when we grasp at our own wisdom and desires, we become ruled by them.
This is becomes obvious when we think about how Popular Culture treats the supernatural. The 70's movie, The Exorcist, for example. When people see it, they have one of 2 reactions. They either ignore the danger displayed in it because "it's just a movie". Or they take it seriously and get scared. As we saw earlier, in my introductory story, the spiritual realm is just as real as the physical. Jesus has ultimate authority over both.
In the interest of time, there was an image shown of verses that prove Jesus' Authority. I'll copy the list down here --
Teaching- Mk. 1:22 Demons - Mk. 1:27
Sickness - Mk. 1:31 Forgive sins - Mk. 2:10
Wind/waves - Mk. 4:41 Miracles - Mk. 11:28-29
His own life - Jn. 10:18 Heaven & Earth Mt. 28:18
The fact is, Jesus has not "passed the torch" to us, He is always with us. Part of our invitation to rule and reign with Him lies in our potential to rest into His Sabbath. This suggests a far deeper relationship than the basic concept of accepting His forgiveness. In Jesus' birth, He brought with Him an opportunity for humanity to return to the abundance, flourishing, and relationship that was lost in Eden. A true taste of the Kingdom. An invitation, not only to return to the state of grace abandoned by Adam and Eve*, but to actively contend for it by obeying Jesus' Commission to "go into all the World..." He extends His Kingdom in His ways, through His people.
Looking at the perspective James puts on it in chapters 3 and 4 of his letter, we find his words to be far less overt than Jesus'. He makes no room to argue that the World System, the kingdom of darkness, and human desires are things to be strenuously avoided to the detriment of our eternal souls. He reminds them/us in no uncertain terms that our words matter, and that things like envy and selfish desires bring disorder. Sin will ultimately destroy us. He encourages them/us by suggestion here to pay attention to these things, but don't be afraid because the Holy Spirit will strengthen us through everything if we allow it.
Our theme of the spiritual realms being as real as the physical is particularly supported by Paul's words in Ephesians 6:10-14. In this passage, Paul is reminding/informing them/us that their TRUE struggle is not with men, but with powers and principalities. He strongly encourages the metaphorical Armor of God as protection/defense against these things.*
Flipping over to Colossians 2:15, we discover the fact that Jesus has disarmed the Enemy. The full destruction will come later, as per Revelation 20:14.
Ephesians 1 shows us that the throne abdicated by man is currently filled by Jesus. This gives us the authority to fight adversaries in the spiritual realm with the power of God at our disposal.
At this point, Pastor Matt shared a story from Early 2005. He and his wife, Heidi, had recently moved to Ipswich, Mass. to assist in a Church there. For 3 weeks in a row, when Matt was scheduled to speak on a Sunday afternoon, he had severe back pain and sickness first thing in the morning. During this time, a group from the Church met and prayed for him. By the 4th week, he was healed. This proves the effectiveness of the spiritual realm on the physical body. He also shared briefly about a woman they met or saw during a time of ministry in India. She had been cursing for some time, but the presence of God in that meeting stopped it.
In Ephesians 3:10-11, we read that the Church communicates to the spiritual realms Who God is. This proves to us that how we live as Christians matters. We should show love to ALL as a sign both to the powers and to other people. It's not that we should expect to be perfect; just that we are empowered by the Holy Ghost in all situations.
After the service, there was an invitation for healing/freedom for any who wanted to receive. (This is something that I've never seen them do before, as the general goal of CenterPoint is to maintain a "Non-Dom" environment that is inviting to all Believers.)*
-- God Bless!!
Footnotes:
1. I have a friend who has experience with Dementia Care Facilities and Medicare/Medicaid, but if anyone has any advice, I would love to hear it.
2. Although mention of my personal experiences with the supernatural gives me some pause here, you'll observe that I have no such hesitation toward calling Catholics, Jews, or other groups out on points where they're unbiblical. The difference is, those other Religions/Denominations include False Teachings; and we all know how vehemently Jesus spoke out against these people. My personal experiences are 100% factual.
3. Other personal experiences I've had include a visit from my great-aunt when I was about 9 yrs old, and the creaking of the floor and movement of the hallway rug at Rich's place the night after we had buried his father in the afternoon. (His services were held 2 yrs to the day after Rich's mother's)
4. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned about discovering a need to edit my Reflections post in light of new insight on Jesus coming through the waters of Baptism. I did that before I started on this post earlier this afternoon.
5. Any of you who may be Seventh Day Adventists will want to pay attention to the fact here that Jesus never suggested a specific day of the week, only that reverence to God be a normal practice in our lives. We see in Mark 2:27, when Jesus said that "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath", in Luke 6:5 that Jesus is "Lord of the Sabbath", and in Hebrews 4:9-11, that Jesus IS our Sabbath. This is further supported by Jesus' words in Matt. 11:28-29 where He invites us to rest in Him. The Scriptural context in this is that we need do nothing more to earn Salvation than to Believe, trust, and rest in His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness while extending those qualities to others. The Bible is replete with verses that speak against Legalistic ways of practicing God's Commands.
6. In relation to Jesus' telling the wind to "put a muzzle on it", I can't help admitting here that I've used a bit stronger wording than that when speaking to the wind. "Calm your $#17!!" ;p (I keep it real, what can I say??)
7. Catholics would also do well to take note that Peter was married. While it may be true that the Catholic Church did not make the official decision to only choose priests from men who were voluntarily celibate until the 12th century, an accurate analysis of Matt. 19 and 1 Corinthians 7 is helpful in understanding the contexts and indications here. The bottom line is this, both Jesus and Paul were simply acknowledging the fact that everyone has strengths and weaknesses in terms of their human desires. Neither one is suggesting that as being good or bad in relation to ministry. They are just showing that a celibate person may be less likely to get distracted by other responsibilities than one who is less disciplined in their body. (Besides which, we all know how "celibate" most priests are, now don't we??) SMH...
8. The history of the symbolism of snakes, among other Ancient Beliefs is covered more thoroughly in my Reflections post on Tattoos. I also wanted to say here that nothing about this suggests that Adam and Ever were not the first humans, as some believe. The fact that the span of Adam's life was 930 yrs tells us that there was plenty of time in which these ideas may have developed. We are never told how long Adam and Eve actually spent in the Garden, so the thought that they weren't the first of their kind is inconclusive at best, and an outright lie at worst. (I also have plans for a treatise on Rock Music at some point, which covers other kinds of symbols as opposed to just animals)
9. When Satan was talking to Eve about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he suggested that she and Adam could just as easily ignore God's command and gain the knowledge on their own.
10. Genesis 1:26 is an excellent argument against those who don't embrace the truth of the Trinity. The Father wasn't just talking to Himself there... speaking of which, I recently came up with new insights and a new analogy concerning the Trinity. First of all, the description of marriage (or what has been suggested as such) in Genesis 2:24 gives us a picture of "multiple unity" as a husband and wife "become one". Secondly, someone on Quora brought out the idea that "God" is really a title for the individuals who comprise the Trinity. My previous analogy was of Business Partners, but now I've started suggesting that no one talks about their favorite sports team by listing the individual players. They talk about the team as a whole, using the chosen name given to the group. It's really not as complicated as some think...
11. Don't get it twisted, the fact that Adam and Eve walked in a "state of grace" with God in NO WAY suggests that we can do what we want since Jesus died on the Cross. We are not Saved TO grace, but only BY it. The "state of grace" Adam and Eve walked in with the Father is the same as we have now in our relationship with Him. It acknowledges our humanity while extending love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness into our naturally weaker nature.
12. I actually participated in an excellent Women's Bible Study called "The Armor of God" by Priscilla Shirer back in the Summer of 2016. I highly recommend it!!
13. As one of my former churches was Word of Faith, I miss the Gifts of the Spirit being regularly displayed. In talking with Pastor Matt privately, he revealed that he personally believes in the Gifts, but in light of CenterPoint's continued business relationship with the Conservative Baptist organization, he's limited in how much he can show it. That being said, he HAS shared the fact that he has experienced medically documented miraculous healing at least once. (I have personally been healed 2x and been Baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of other Tongues)
Music -- No rights, I promise!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzEX3QMuVPM
Chris Tomlin - O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Lyric Video),https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH7asSGxAxA
Paul Baloche - The First Noel/Above All (Official Lyric Video),https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmWPKede5BA
Hark The Herald Angels Sing (Christmas Lyric Video),https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P97yj-f4sc
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