The Man at the Tombs

The man at the tombs.  I was thinking about this account yesterday, wondering what it was like for him to comb the mountains night and day, hide in the tombs, cutting himself with stones.   We are told that he wore NO clothes.  No one could bind him with chains and shackles, yet when they did, they were pulled apart and broken in pieces by the demons who were in him.  And no one could tame this man as well.  He cried out.

And if in a tomb, when crying out the echo of his voice could have resounded down the mountain into the city.  What if it had been you?  What do we think people might say? "Oh, there's so and so again - usually when he/she is crying out they are cutting themselves.  Wish he'd quit."

Perhaps the people of the city got used to this man and his great bondage.  Don't we do this?  We get used to people and their alcoholism, crazed thinking, whatever the sin, habit might be.  But do we "hear" any cries - you know, the silent ones?

Yet thank God, Jesus Christ the Almighty hears every cry of the heart - every true single cry.  The cry for liberty, freedom, release of bondage, lies, shackles within the mind.

Amazingly enough, when this man saw Jesus stepping onto the land from a boat, he ran and worshiped Him.  But the account in Mark infers that it was the evil spirit in him who worshiped Jesus because he immediately cried out and called him the Son of the Most High God.  Then he begged that Jesus would not torment him.  Wow, that's a turn.  First the demons torment the man, and then they beg not to be tormented.

We all know the rest of the story.  Jesus commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man, asking his name.   There were many demons in this man of the tombs.  Jesus sent them into a herd of swine, about 2,000 and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea and drowned.  Those who were feeding the swine saw this and ran themselves to tell about it.  Fear gripped people.

And when the people saw the man who had the legion of demons, he was sitting with Jesus, clothed and in this right mind.

This is my favorite part, "Clothed and in his right mind."

For weeks, off and on I've written about renewal of our minds by and through God's Word and the power of His Holy Spirit.  Why in the world we think we do not need God's Spirit to do this work in us, I'll never know.

Our dispensation is different in that Jesus Christ is not here physically.  Yet by and through God's Holy Spirit in the heart of man, Jesus Christ is praise God, STILL the same yesterday, today and FOREVER!

 He is still the Son of the Most High God.  He has already paid the price and was the once for all sacrifice for sins, and He now lives in each of our hearts through the Holy Spirit of God.  AND we have God's incredible BOOK as well - the Holy Scriptures. 

This dispensation is glorious in that GRACE reigns, the Gospel goes out to all, and TODAY is the time of salvation of any and all who will come.  Jesus' blood has secured those who run to Him and stay with Him.  And Jesus Christ is STILL compassionate, loving and the Power over all flesh and evil.

We have the most wonderful opportunity to know the Risen Christ within and like the man at the tombs, be free from all that would bind us, shackle us, torment us, abuse us contrary to a right mind.

The man in that day was so tormented in his mind I am sure - back and forth.  Have you ever stopped to think what his thoughts were?  Have the thoughts of the Satanic realm changed?  Is not the mind of Satan the same yesterday, today, and thank God NOT forever?  He shall be destroyed by the Lord Himself.

Yet thank God, Jesus Christ IS the same yesterday, today and FOREVER!  Again, He is loving, compassionate, all power over every evil thought and demonic infiltration.  His thoughts are forever. "The Word of God lives and abides forever."

Today we think we do not see people like this man of the tombs.  Wrong.  We see them every day.  In time past, I could see some of myself like this man.  Why?  Because of tormenting thoughts - back and forth.  What kind of thoughts?  Maybe I was not cutting myself, looked normal and I was in church, but I remember thinking thoughts like:

"That's not good enough, you didn't say that right, you're this, you're that..." OR just unrest in the mind of some kind.  Unrest of not "figuring out" why this doesn't happen, or that didn't happen.  Unrest.

Where do we think these thoughts come from anyway?  The realm of unrest and no peace is certainly not God's kingdom.  For Jesus is the PRINCE of PEACE!

Hey, we have the greatest, most unfathomable gift this world could never touch with all their gizmos, technology, advancements, entertainment, etc.  What?

JESUS CHRIST LIVING in you and me.  The peace speaker.  The TRUTH giver.  THE LIFE - actually, RIVERS of living water.  He's there always to guide us into ALL TRUTH.  Truth equals peace and life - freedom from shackles, chains, lies, demonic pressures from the world.  Oh my, what a Savior and Lord!

Take a Jesus Christ break today, not a MacDonald's break.  Really.  Come to the one who is the Master of the tombs - any tomb of darkness of the mind and soul.  And listen.  God can make all the torment of one's life that he or she suffered melt and shaped into being, "Clothed with His righteousness and in their RIGHT mind - His mind of life and peace, the mind of the living Christ."

This is Salvation.  This is the Gospel.  This is Jesus Christ.

Amen,

Sue Gaither