Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 NASB.

Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16.

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 NLT.

I loved this in You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “God Stays with Us…I really don’t know if our civilization will survive the century. Considering the growing threat of nuclear holocaust there certainly is a reason to wonder. But important for me is not if our civilization will survive or not, but if we can continue to live with hope, and I really think we can because our Lord has given us His promise that He will stay with us at all times. He is the God of the living. He has overcome evil and death and His love is stronger than any form of death and destruction. That is why I feel that we should continually avoid the temptation of despair and deepen our awareness that God is present in the midst of all the chaos that surrounds us and that that presence allows us to live joyfully and peacefully in a world so filled with sorrow and conflict.”

And in our chapter, Mark 5, three people were wonderfully impacted by Jesus’ presence changing their lives. Jesus and His disciples have crossed the lake by boat to a region of gentiles known as the Gerasene Region. And a man with an impure spirit comes to them from the tombs there. 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!” v. 1-8. Can you imagine how frightening it would be to live anywhere near this man? And he’s shouting at the top of his voice! With others who had impure spirits, those spirits left as soon as Jesus commanded them. But Jesus does something remarkable. The man has been shouting, there is the evidence on his body of his repeated cutting. Can you imagine his countenance? 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. v. 9-10. In the notes below, a legion was the largest unit of the Roman army numbering 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers. 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. v. 11-13. When it was reported to the town and countryside by those tending the pigs, the people came and pleaded with Jesus to leave their region, v. 14-17. And the man? He begged to go with Jesus but Jesus told him to return to his own people…“and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” v. 19. That’s the first time Jesus has said that to someone…to tell them how much…the Lord…has done for you…and how He has had mercy on you. Imagine the profound difference in the life of this man encountering the Lord, Jesus the Son, and the willingness Jesus had to talk with him. So they left that region and returned by boat and encountered another man, Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, whose daughter is dying. And he begs Jesus to heal her so she can live. On the way to his house, they encounter the third person in great need, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and who because of that condition was considered unclean. The crowd is surging around Jesus because Jairus has asked Jesus to heal his daughter and they want to go see what Jesus will do. So the woman, afraid to make contact with Jesus directly because she is unclean, touched His cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” v. 21-30. The crowd is clamoring close to follow Jesus to see a sign. Only Jesus and the woman knew something remarkable had happened. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at His feet and, trembling with fear, told Him the whole truth, v. 33. If she had touched a priest, she would have been rebuked for making that person unclean. She knows the bleeding has completely changed – and she knows only rejection by people because of her “uncleanness”. No wonder she’s trembling with fear! He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” v. 34. Can you imagine? Everything changed. And during the time it took for all of this to happen, Jairus’s daughter died. People came to Jairus to tell him. And Jesus? Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow Him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at Him. v. 36-40. I can’t imagine laughing at Jesus but they were so steeped, as are we, in living in the reality as they knew it, nothing else was possible. After He put them all out, He took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with Him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat. v. 40-43. Can you imagine what the few people there felt and thought? Everything they knew to be real changed. In the notes below it directed us to what Paul wrote decades later because it takes time with the help of the Holy Spirit, to understand and comprehend what we don’t yet know: Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

The three in our chapter certainly had no hope of their reality changing, but it did. Jesus was the change that made the difference. And the amazing thing is that that change is real. And we can experience that change that makes all the difference in our lives, too. The Lord Himself does this for us as we turn to Him. He has great mercy on everyone because He understands the suffering we endure. He is willing to walk with us through all of it. With Him with us, we can not be afraid...and believe! How can we not? We know His love! He is showing us every day. Sometimes the paths we walk with Him are strewn with rocks and boulders. Sometimes the paths are smooth. Looking back we can see the difference so clearly in our life lived without knowing His love…and our lives lived now with Him loving us. In the midst of everything, Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is faithful. A different life! Jesus, the Son, came to live among us, the “unclean” and those longing for a difference, and those who laughed and refused anything other than what they “knew”. By His coming then to live among His children – dearly loved – He shows us the difference we so desperately need. Hope in Him. Then and now and for all eternity! We are not unclean to Him. We are loved and in need of Him. And He is here. Always!