Category Archives: Mark

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Twenty-First Century Demons

Satan Loves It When We Don’t Believe In Him

When did demons become extinct? What I mean is, we read about them in Scripture and accept that they were part and parcel of Jesus’ war on Satan to bring Planet Earth back under the Creator’s dominion, but we think and act as if they don’t exist in twenty-first century America. We have medical and psychological explanations for everything that ails us these days, and either a pill or a professional to help us cope with our “disorders”. But if Jesus faced them—sometimes even in church—then demonic forces are alive and well in people’s lives today, wreaking all kinds of havoc. And if Jesus took authority over them and drove them out with just a word—and if he passed that authority on to us—then perhaps we ought to learn to discern the presence of demons today and boldly use Jesus’ authority to boot them out of town just like he did. I do recall reading some place that Jesus said driving out demons was a sign that we believe.

The Journey: Mark 1:23-26

Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One sent from God!” Jesus cut him short. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.

When did demons become extinct? What I mean is, we read about them in Scripture and accept that they were part and parcel of Jesus’ war on Satan to bring Planet Earth back under the Creator’s dominion, but we think and act as if they don’t exist in twenty-first century America. We have medical and psychological explanations for everything that ails us these days, and either a pill or a professional to help us cope with our “disorders”. But I get the sense when I read the Gospels that some of today’s disorders are, to a greater or lesser degree, nothing more that demonic influences in disguise.

Now please, please, please, don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not looking to find a devil under every rock. Don’t go flushing your meds down the drain or calling your counselor an kook. Let’s stay balanced and Biblical as we explore the possibility of demonic activity in your world and mind. As C.S. Lewis warned in the preface to his book, The Screwtape Letters,

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

Let’s not be guilty of either of those errors! Having said that, I agree with what a twentieth-century English theologian by the name of Ronald Knox said, “It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.” If you didn’t get that, here’s how Martin Luther said it,

Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceed from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.

Look, I’m not saying the devil is the cause of every headache you get, or every cussword that slips from your lips, or every nasty thought that ricochets around your brain. Nor am I trying to create fear in you there are demons under your bed and they’re going to get you tonight while you sleep. What I am saying is that if Jesus faced them—sometimes even in church—then demonic forces are alive and well in people’s lives today, wreaking all kinds of havoc. And if Jesus took authority over them and drove them out with just a word—and if he passed that authority on to us—then perhaps we ought to learn to discern the presence of demons today and boldly use Jesus’ authority to boot them out of town just like he did.

I do recall reading some place that Jesus said driving out demons was a sign that we believe.

There is obviously a great deal of competing information today on demons and demonic activity that feed the two extremes Lewis warned about: disbelief in their existence and unhealthy, excessive interest in them. To learn more—which every Christian should, since Jesus said the demons had to submit to us—let me suggest the following plan:

  1. Study the Scriptures—especially the Gospels—to gain a foundational understanding of the devil, his demons, how they operate, and how Jesus dealt with them and how Jesus didn’t deal with them. Never go beyond what the Bible says in forming your theology.
  2. I would encourage you to download and read the position paper entitled “Can Born-Again Christians Be Demon Possessed?” You can find the pdf file at http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers/index.cfm
  3. Let me suggest this book to help fill in some of the details regarding the subject of demons: “Sense & Nonsense About Angels & Demons”.

Finally, I will say again what Jesus said more than once: we have authority over all the works of the Evil One. And that authority is first and foremost exercised through faith and prayer (see Mark 9:14-29. As Guy H. King said, “No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil, not that he practices it, but he suffers from it.”

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, since you have given me authority through your Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat the work of the Enemy, then starting today, develop me into a holy warrior over all that is of the devil in my life and in the lives of those I love.
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Can Your Salvation Pass Divine Inspection?

There Is Only One Way: Repent And Believe The Gospel!

Jesus has called you to eternal life. And here is the question of questions: Have you followed his “salvation equation” — repent and believe his gospel? That is the one and only way your salvation will pass Divine inspection.

The Journey: Mark 1:15

“The time promised by God has come at last!” Jesus announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

Most surveys today reveal a high percentage — consistently within the 80-90% range — of Americans who believe in God, claim Christianity as their faith, think that the Bible is God’s Word, and are sure they will go to heaven when they die. Yet even the causal observer of both the Bible and American society can plainly see the huge disconnect between true Christianity and current culture.

So what explains this critical disconnect? I think it is due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be saved. Many people assume that if you were born in America, or if you were raised in a church-going family, even a CEO family—a “Christmas and Easter Only” home—that you are automatically Christian. Others assume if you simply claim Christianity as your faith, then you are Christian.

Both assumptions are fatally flawed. In fact, any assumption that doesn’t recognize the salvation equation Jesus provided is flawed. There is one way, and only one way, to salvation: Repent and believe the gospel!

Both repentance and belief are two essential sides to the same salvation coin. Salvation begins with repentance. To repent does not simply mean to feel sorrowful for your wrong, remorseful that you got caught or fearful that you will be punished. Biblical repentance means to recognize that you have offended a holy God, experience Godly sorrow over both your sinfulness and offensiveness before God (2 Corinthians 7:10) , confess the sinfulness to God (1 John 1:9), and—this is a critical part—make a 180-degree turn in the path you are on so that both your current behavior and the overall pattern of your life are now moving in a direction that purposefully and joyfully honors God (Matthew 3:8).

Biblical belief is more than just intellectual acknowledgement of a truth. It is placing faith in the truth of the gospel. And like repentance, this kind of faith/belief requires an alignment of head, heart, and hands—or intellect, passion, and behavior (see Matthew 22:37-39)—so that the entirety of one’s life becomes God-focused, God-directed, and God-dependent. True belief means to so align one’s life that there is no sensible explanation for it without the existence of the God who has called that life into loving, intimate relationship with himself.

Using those definitions of Biblical repentance and belief as a spiritual plumb-line, I have a strong suspicion that the spiritual foundation on which so many Americans are erecting their house of faith would not meet the Divine Inspector’s building code.

Be that as it may, the most important thing at this moment is that Jesus has called you to eternal life. And here is the question of questions: Have you followed his equation—repent and belief his gospel? And why wouldn’t you? After all, Jesus paid for your salvation through his death. I love how Martin Luther so profoundly stated it, “Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved. Now choose what you want.”

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I turn my life over to you. Through your Son, Jesus Christ, cleanse me from every sin and forgive my fundamental sinfulness. I invite Jesus to live in my heart as Lord and Savior. I believe the gospel. I place saving faith in you, trusting that you have saved me by your grace. Thank you for granting me the gift of eternal life.
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Sacred Cows – Barbecue Sauce, Anyone?

Traditions Are Not Holy, Only God Is!

When any tradition, no matter how loved and appropriate at some time in the past, hinders worship, belief, and intimacy with the Almighty in the present, that tradition has to go! What traditions am I talking about? I don’t know—you tell me. Perhaps it has to do with style of music or appropriate worship attire or a preferred version of the Bible or how your church practices Holy Communion. It could be anything that, by itself, is not wrong, but if that practice or tradition is now, in all honesty, worshipped or treated as sacred, then it has nullified the Word of God. Traditions are not sacred, only God is! Take a hard look at your traditions, and the traditions of your fellowship. And if you find a sacred cow, it may be time to heat up the barbecue. Be wise, be prayerful, be careful, but enjoy the burnt offering!

The Journey: Matthew 15:6

And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.

Tradition gets a bad rap in Christian circles these days. Much of modern, so-called “seeker-sensitive” spirituality has pretty much done away with anything that smacks of tradition. Yet not all tradition is bad—Holy Communion, to remind us of Christ’s sacrificial death, the living body of Christ, and the return of our Lord; the early creeds of the church to remind us of the great doctrines upon which our faith stands, the recitation of the Lord’s prayer, for obvious reasons; the celebration of special days, like Christmas and Easter, to remind us of his coming and his dying.

However, it is safe to say that the reason modern Christianity is down on tradition in general is that many churches have done exactly what Jesus warned against: they have nullified the authority and power of God’s Word by blind allegiance to these traditions. In other words, the tradition has become the end rather than the means to a greater end—the worship and glorification of Almighty God.

We must be careful at all costs to avoid unthinking and unquestioned loyalty to a tradition. Woodrow Wilson offered a revealing insight about tradition that we really ought to consider here: “To do things today exactly the way you did them yesterday saves thinking.” He was right: blind, uncritical loyalty to a tradition is mental laziness.

We ought to boldly question anything that prevents seekers from experiencing the present reality of a God whose Son broke scores of ridiculous rules and then died to redeem those seekers. We ought to courageously challenge anything that keeps believers from walking more intimately with Jesus Christ. We ought to seriously evaluate anything that might stand in the way God’s presence when he, himself, went out of his way to remove every barrier to his presence. When any tradition, no matter how well loved and appropriate at some time in the past, hinders worship, belief, and intimacy with the Almighty, that tradition has to go!

What traditions am I talking about? I don’t know—you tell me. Perhaps it has to do with style of music or appropriate worship attire or a preferred version of the Bible or how your church practices Holy Communion. It could be anything that, by itself, is not wrong, but if that practice or tradition is now, in all honesty, worshipped or treated as sacred, then it has nullified the Word of God. Traditions are not sacred, only God is!

Take a hard look at your traditions, and the traditions of your fellowship. Identify a tradition that really helps you to experience the presence of God. Then write a paragraph describing why that tradition is important to your faith and honoring to God. If you cannot root it in a “theology” that encourages intimacy, spiritual power, the growth of the fellowship and the evangelization of the lost, then maybe it’s time to fire up the barbecue.

Be wise. Be prayerful. Be careful. And enjoy the burnt offering.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, give me a wise and discerning heart as it relates to traditions that I have elevated above simple intimacy with you. Then give me courage to put that tradition in its rightful place—either back in the barn for a time out or on the barbecue for a proper sacrifice. Keep me always and ever burning with an authentic, passionate love for your presence.
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The Unpardonable Sin

The Steadfast Refusal To Be Forgiven

When we deliberately choose a lie when confronted with God’s Truth, it is not that God then withholds his Truth—or his love and redemption for that matter—but that with each such deliberate choice, we become less able to respond to these graces. The real danger is that at some point we may very well refuse to be forgiven.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 3:28-29

I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequence.

Jesus revealed unlimited forgiveness through his death on the cross. By his atoning sacrifice, God’s great grace covers all our sin—with the exception of one: Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. That sin has been called unforgivable.

These three words—the unforgivable sin—have caused untold anguish to many who have misunderstood their meaning and thought they had committed this grievous sin of all sins. Maybe they had become angry in a time of bitter disappointment or loss and let their rage fly, cursing God. Perhaps they fell into a sin they had vowed to God never to commit again. Maybe they had toyed with something Satanic, or mocked the work of the Spirit in a church service only then to be hit with the terrifying thought that they had insulted and blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Whatever the case, based on this passage, there are those who wonder if they are hopelessly and eternally damned.

One of the chief problems with this passage, however, is that the wrong people are usually the ones obsessing over it. It is usually those who have a high degree of moral sensitivity and care deeply about their relationship with God, or those who suffer the religious symptoms of an emotional imbalance who live under such guilt and fear. In both cases, a misunderstanding of the passage has created unnecessary pain.

The context of this confrontational encounter gives us a better understanding. Jesus had been performing many outstanding miracles (Mark 3:10-11, see also Matthew 12:22-30 and Luke 11:14-28), plainly evident for all to see. Most of the people were astounded by Jesus’ power over disease, demons and death, but out of sheer jealous and condescending elitism, the religious leaders scorned Jesus’ ministry as the work of the devil. So Jesus’ declaration of this unforgivable sin here is clearly a response to the sin of these few. It is not the sin of blurting out some momentary profanity or sacrilege against the Spirit of God. It’s the much more sinister offense of looking into the very face of Truth and calling it a lie. The teachers of the law were seeing the undeniable healing imprint of God’s Spirit and still deliberately calling it a work of Satan.

We need to understand that these leaders were not simply ignorant or perhaps confused in this matter; they knew exactly what they were doing. It is worth noting that verse 30 doesn’t translate very well from the Greek text in most English versions. An imperfect tense is used which suggests that theirs was a chronic attitude. In other words, they were continually declaring that Jesus had an evil spirit. This was not simply a spur-of-the-moment declaration, but an ongoing fixation.

Why couldn’t they be forgiven? Not because God’s grace was withheld from them, but because with each denial, they became increasingly incapable of responding to the Spirit of Grace.

Now here is the real danger in this—and the message for us who read this sobering text: When we deliberately choose a lie when confronted with God’s Truth, it is not that God then withholds his Truth—or his love and redemption for that matter—but that with each such deliberate choice, we become less able to respond to these graces.

So this brings us to the correct definition of the unforgivable sin: It is the steadfast refusal to be forgiven! The only sin that cannot be forgiven is un-repentance. However, when we bring to God a soft and sorrowful heart, we find as King David did, that “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

Thrive: Keep in mind this prayer of the forgivable sinner: “Father, create in me a tender heart. Keep me sensitive to the convicting work of your Spirit and cause me to be quick to repent.”

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That Stinks To High Heaven

The Pharisees Are Not All Dead Yet

God wasn’t impressed with the Pharisees, nor is he impressed with our rituals; he wants to be in relationship with us. Holding onto tradition for the sake of tradition is meaningless to God; he wants our acts of worship to be authentic. Lips that affirm one thing but a heart that holds to something else is completely odious to God—and we must be constantly alert to that.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 7:6-8

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you”, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

What stinks? When people, especially spiritual influencers who ought to know better, exalt religious rituals over a real relationship with God, God holds his nose! When a religious activity is devoid of loving obedience, God finds it odious, obnoxious and he is repulsed by both the act and the religious spirit behind it.

That’s what Jesus was dealing with in this story. As he began to preach and minister the Kingdom of God, conflict with the Pharisees, religious leaders and other “stakeholders” in traditional Judaism increased dramatically. They didn’t like the fact that Jesus wasn’t holding to their traditions at all—and Jesus wasn’t intimidated by their pressure to conform.

In this particular conflict, they were upset that his disciples didn’t go through ritual washing before eating. This was just one of many “violations” that upset them. When they questioned Jesus about it, he let loose a holy tirade against their ridiculous traditions. In a Divine “dressing down”, we see something of what is truly irksome to God: Shallow, hypocritical, spiritually incongruent religiosity.

Jeremy Taylor writes, “The Pharisees minded what God spoke, but not what He intended…They were busy in the outward work of the hand, but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart. So God was served in the letter, they did not much inquire into His purpose; and therefore they were curious to wash their hands, but cared not to purify their hearts.”

God wasn’t impressed with the Pharisees, nor is he impressed with your rituals; he wants to be in relationship with you. Holding onto tradition for the sake of tradition is meaningless to God; he wants your acts of worship to be authentic. Lips that affirm one thing but a heart that holds to something else is completely odious to God—be constantly alert to that.

God desires integrity in our behavior, intimacy in our walk with him, and authenticity in our worship practices. Spirituality devoid of integrity, intimacy, and authenticity is even more repulsive to God than people who know they are sinners and don’t try to hide the fact.

Now there is an obvious application to this particular reading: God wants your heart. And he wants the heart you offer him to be pure. But let me suggest a riskier application of this text: Rather than reading them and feeling a sense of spiritual justification, why not read yourself into the story as one of the Pharisees. You see, the longer you are in the faith, the greater the likelihood that you will slip into some of the very practices God found so odious in the religious establishment of Jesus’ day.

Whatever it takes, keep your relationship with God fresh and vital!

Thrive: Are the activities of your faith born out of ritualistic observance or loving obedience? Remember, God wants what you do with your hands to reflect the love that is in your heart. If that is not true for you, then back up and get your heart right!

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21st Century Demons

Driving Out Demons is Still a Sign That We Believe

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. (The Screwtape Letters)

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 1:23-26

Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One sent from God!” Jesus cut him short. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.

When did demons become extinct? What I mean is, we read about them in Scripture and accept that they were part and parcel of Jesus’ war on Satan to bring Planet Earth back under the Creator’s dominion, but we think and act as if they don’t exist in twenty-first century America. We have medical and psychological explanations for everything that ails us these days, and either a pill or a professional to help us cope with our “disorders”. But I get the sense when I read the Gospels that some of today’s disorders are, to a greater or lesser degree, nothing more than demonic influences in disguise.

Now please, please, please, don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not looking to find a devil under every rock. Don’t go flushing your meds down the drain or calling your counselor an idiot. Let’s stay balanced and Biblical as we explore the possibility of demonic activity in your world and mine. As C.S. Lewis warned in the preface to his book, The Screwtape Letters,

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

Let’s not be guilty of either of those errors! Having said that, I agree with what a twentieth-century English theologian by the name of Ronald Knox said: “It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.” If you didn’t get that, here’s how Martin Luther said it,

Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceed from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.

Look, I’m not saying the devil is the cause of every headache you get, or every cussword that slips from your lips, or every nasty thought that ricochets around your brain. Nor am I trying to create fear in you that there are demons under your bed and they’re going to get you tonight while you sleep. What I am saying is that if Jesus faced them—sometimes even in church—then demonic forces are alive and well in people’s lives today, wreaking all kinds of havoc. And if Jesus took authority over them and drove them out with just a word—and if he passed that authority on to us—then perhaps we ought to learn to discern the presence of demons today and boldly use Jesus’ authority to boot them out of town just like he did.

I do recall reading some place that Jesus said driving out demons was a sign that we believe.

Thrive: There is obviously a great deal of competing information today on demons and demonic activity that feed the two extremes Lewis warned about: disbelief in their existence and unhealthy, excessive interest in them. To learn more—which every Christian should, since Jesus said the demons had to submit to us—let me suggest the following plan: First, study the Scriptures—especially the Gospels—to gain a foundational understanding of the devil, his demons, how they operate, and how Jesus dealt with them and how Jesus didn’t deal with them. Never go beyond what the Bible says in forming your theology. Second, I would encourage you to download and read the position paper entitled “Can Born-Again Christians Be Demon Possessed?  Third, let me suggest this book to help fill in some of the details regarding the subject of demons: “Sense & Nonsense About Angels & Demons”.

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The Greatest Virtue

What God Will Never Despise

The next time you see an arrogant religious leader in action, turn off the TV or turn around and walk away if you are in his or her presence. Next time you see a person humbly appeal for help, turn toward and humbly serve them as the Servant of All would. And the next time you’re tempted to think, feel, act or speak in any manner other than true humility, go back and review the life of Jesus, your Great Example.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Mark 7:33-35

Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said … “Be opened!” Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!

It would be normal for us to focus on the unusual healing methods Jesus employed to heal this man with deaf ears and tied tongue. What a strange thing—Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears, then apparently, removed them, spit on them and then touched his tongue.

Yikes! I’m glad Jesus wasn’t setting a pattern for praying for the sick today. What Jesus did for this man—or more accurately, how Jesus prayed for this man—has nothing over some of the strange antics and overt showiness of some of today’s so called faith healers.

But don’t miss the first thing Jesus did when this poor man’s friends brought him to Jesus for prayer: He pulled the man aside so he could minister to him in private. Obviously, Jesus didn’t want his methodology to be the thing the crowd focused on. Nor did he want to turn this man into a sideshow or use him as a trophy that could build a greater following for Jesus. The Lord never used people in that way, so he simply, quietly healed the man in the most respectful way possible.

So why the weird methods? I’m not really sure, since Jesus could have simply spoke a word and the man would have been healed. But he had his reasons, and the bottom line was a man who had been victimized by this horrible physical bondage was miraculously, fully and gratefully set free.

Nor should we miss the greater message behind this event. It is a message, in fact, that runs throughout the entirety of Mark 7. What is that message? It is that God values “humility”. It is the lack of humility that frames the opening encounter between the religious elite and Jesus. When the scribes and Pharisees criticize Jesus and his disciples for not observing the man-made minutiae of the Jewish Law, Jesus rebukes them for their arrogant, manipulative and abusive misapplication of God’s true law.

On the other hand, it is the presence of humility that moves Jesus to respond to the woman who comes to him to get her daughter delivered from a demon. Jesus initially puts this Syro-Phoenician lady through her paces in order to bring out her faith—actually telling her she doesn’t deserve to be healed (really—check out Mark 7:27, NLT). But the woman, who is from a much wealthier, more prestigious culture than this simple, uncouth Galilean, won’t take “no” for an answer, so she humbly makes her request of Jesus, who gladly grants it.

Then, as we have seen with the healing of the deaf man with a speech impediment, Jesus rejects any form of showiness by doing in private what God does—restoring not only hearing to deaf ears but dignity to the human soul.

Nothing turns God off like arrogance. But there is nothing God treasures like humility. That is because nothing is closer to the core of God’s character than humility, which the Apostle Paul reminds us of in Philippians 2:1-11 through the example of Jesus. That is why humility is arguably the greatest virtue.

The next time you see an arrogant religious leader in action, turn off the TV or turn around and walk away if you are in his or her presence. Next time you see a person humbly appeal for help, turn toward and humbly serve them as the Servant would. And the next time you’re tempted to think, feel, act or speak in any manner other than true humility, go back and read Mark 7.

Thrive: Ask God to reveal any form of pride that may reside in your life and remove it from you. Then humble yourself before him and ask for his help in exhibiting the attitude of humility exemplified by Jesus.