Luke 8:26-56, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Go to Jesus - April 1, 2022

Christ lived the life we could not live, and took the punishment we could not take, to offer the hope we cannot resist. Why?

Jesus was angry enough to purge the temple, distraught enough to weep in public, winsome enough to attract kids, poor enough to sleep on dirt, responsible enough to care for his mother, tempted enough to know the smell of Satan. Why?

Why would heaven’s finest son endure earth’s toughest pain? So you would know that he is able. . .to run to the cry of. . .those who are being tempted and tested and tried. Whatever you’re facing, he knows how you feel. When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. Why?

He’s been there. He’s not ashamed of you. Your actions don’t bewilder him. Your tilted halo doesn’t trouble him. So go to him!

Luke 8:26-56

The Madman and the Pigs

26-29 They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As he stepped out onto land, a madman from town met him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn’t worn clothes for a long time, nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and howled, “What business do you have messing with me? You’re Jesus, Son of the High God, but don’t give me a hard time!” (The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds.

30-31 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Mob. My name is Mob,” he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit.

32-33 A large herd of pigs was grazing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the lake and drowned.

34-36 Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus’ feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.

37-39 Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave—too much change, too fast, and they were scared. So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom he had delivered from the demons asked to go with him, but he sent him back, saying, “Go home and tell everything God did in you.” So he went back and preached all over town everything Jesus had done in him.
His Touch

40-42 On his return, Jesus was welcomed by a crowd. They were all there expecting him. A man came up, Jairus by name. He was president of the meeting place. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his home because his twelve-year-old daughter, his only child, was dying. Jesus went with him, making his way through the pushing, jostling crowd.

43-45 In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”

When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.”

46 Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.”

47 When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.

48 Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!”

49 While he was still talking, someone from the leader’s house came up and told him, “Your daughter died. No need now to bother the Teacher.”

50-51 Jesus overheard and said, “Don’t be upset. Just trust me and everything will be all right.” Going into the house, he wouldn’t let anyone enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child’s parents.

52-53 Everyone was crying and carrying on over her. Jesus said, “Don’t cry. She didn’t die; she’s sleeping.” They laughed at him. They knew she was dead.

54-56 Then Jesus, gripping her hand, called, “My dear child, get up.” She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were ecstatic, but Jesus warned them to keep quiet. “Don’t tell a soul what happened in this room.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, April 01, 2022

Today's Scripture
Romans 15:1–6
(NIV)

 Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”

3–6     That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!

Insight

In the midst of its rich theological teaching and solid practical application, one of the sometimes-overlooked themes in the letter to the Romans is hope. The word hope appears multiple times, including five times in chapter 15. These references remind us that hope comes from endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures (v. 4) and that even the gentiles have been included in this hope (v. 12). Paul goes on to remind the Romans—and us—that God is the God of hope who longs for us to experience it as the Spirit works in us (v. 13). In fact, verse 13 reminds us that this hope is directly connected to the joy and peace we have from God as we trust Him. By: Bill Crowder

Witness Marks

Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
Romans 15:2

“See that?” The clock repairman pointed his flashlight beam on a small, fine mark roughly engraved inside the old grandfather clock he was working on in our home. “Another repairman could have put that there almost a century ago,” he said. “It’s called a ‘witness mark,’ and it helps me know how to set the mechanism.”

Before the age of technical bulletins and repair manuals, “witness marks” were used to help the person making a future repair align moving parts with precision. They were more than just time-saving reminders; they were often left as a simple kindness to the next person doing the work.

The Bible encourages us to leave our own “witness marks” as we work for God by serving others in our broken world. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome: “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up” (Romans 15:2). This is the example of our God, “who gives endurance and encouragement” (v. 5). It’s about being a good citizen of both earth and heaven.

Our “witness marks” may seem like small things, but they can make a vital difference in someone’s life. An uplifting word, a financial gift to someone in need, and a listening ear—all are kindnesses that can have a lasting impact. May God help you make a mark for Him in someone’s life today! By:  James Banks

Reflect & Pray

What “witness marks” have others left in your life to encourage you? What simple kindness can you do for another believer today?

Almighty Father, thank You for the loving-kindness You’ve shown me through Your Son, Jesus. Please help me to reflect Your love in even the smallest things I do today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 01, 2022

Helpful or Heartless Toward Others?

It is Christ…who also makes intercession for us….the Spirit…makes intercession for the saints… —Romans 8:34, 27

Do we need any more arguments than these to become intercessors– that Christ “always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25), and that the Holy Spirit “makes intercession for the saints”? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children of God who are taught by His Spirit? We should take a look at our current circumstances. Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship? If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles.

Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don’t worship God, and we fail to intercede. If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.

Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them. Shade of His Hand, 1216 L

Bible in a Year: Judges 13-15; Luke 6:27-49

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 01, 2022

Power Failures - #9290

It was a super-hot summer day and my wife and I were on vacation. Everything was going great until the electrical power went out at our cabin. No lights, no air conditioner, no TV. We decided to go to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Just as we pulled up, they put the closed sign in the window. It's a good thing I'm secure. I might take it personally otherwise. The owner said the power was out there, too, and they decided to close because they really couldn't cook. It turned out that lots of places were closed. The locals told us that the power company had actually recently replaced the old lines with a much newer line that was supposed to be failsafe as far as blackouts. Right. Well, the demands were great that day, and the power...it was just inadequate to meet them.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Power Failures."

That's an experience a lot of us are all too familiar with in our personal lives. The demands are huge: so much to do, a marriage to nurture, kids to raise, pressure at work, decisions, deadlines, conflicts. And sometimes it seems like we have a personal power failure; we just don't have the emotional or physical or spiritual voltage to handle all those demands.

There's a step you can take to help avoid power failures. It's actually described in our word for today from the Word of God in John 5:17. Nobody had more demands on Him than Jesus did when He was here. Yes, He was the Son of God, but He was also fully man so He could be a model for us. He had a very clear way of deciding what work He would take on.

Here's what He said, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working. The Son can do nothing by Himself; He can only do what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the son and shows Him all He does." To put it simply, Jesus said, "I find out what God, the Father, is doing, and I join Him in His work."

Here's one reason we experience personal brownouts or blackouts. We're doing some things that God never asks us to do. Or we're doing God's work in our own resources - trying to figure it out or work it out by ourselves. And that's when the demands become greater than our power to meet them, because it's our power; because we've taken on some demands that were never God's idea. Result: we end up worn out, frustrated, edgy, depleted, negative, out-of-sorts. Like Martha, we're miserable even though we're serving the Lord.

I've been challenged anew by these verses to begin each new day with these words: "My Savior is always at His work to this very day." That has motivated me over the years to ask a question like, "Lord, what are You working on in my wife's life today? My kids' life? The life of my staff? What are you working on as far as our ministry is concerned, the work we're doing? Please show me what You're doing, and then I'll do whatever You ask me to join you in." I know that often I have in response to legitimate needs, I've taken on work that wasn't really what He had in mind for me. And you know what? No surprise I didn't have the power for the demands.

On the other hand, if God's asking you to do something, He'll give you everything you need to get it done. In the words of Hebrews 13:21, He will "equip you with everything good for doing His will." With God's demands comes God's power to meet them. When it's God's job you're doing, you'll never have a power failure!